01x14: Wars
by Gabrielle Henson
Summary: 14th episode in the 'Rocky path' series. As Faith can't decide between making the most of her recent liberty to have fun and brooding over her new loneliness, Giles calls her and asks for her help to retrieve a young Slayer on the run.
1. Teaser

_Disclaimer : Everyone knows who own Buffy and co ! Let's say it, it's not me!_

_This story is the 14th episode in a series called 'Rocky path' that begins around one year after 'Chosen'_

_( I strongly recommend to read the 13 first episodes to understand that one)_

_You can check the series out on my website. (see the url in my profile)  
_

_Sorry for the (very very) long delay since last episode, but unfortunately I can't really promise I'll do better next time... Time will tell._

_Until then, hope you enjoy this episode!_

_Thanks to everyone who left feedback about the previous episodes and will take time to review this one._

* * *

The manor was nestled at the end of a short alley closed with a high wrought ironed gate which might have been majestic in the past. Nowadays, it still stood at the entrance but it would certainly need some serious renewal. Some snow could still be found on its top, last relic of the long-lasting winter, and long raindrops were running down its hinges.

Behind the old L-shaped house that could be partly seen from the gate, stretched a wide park surrounded by high hedges, where stains of snow were scattered around.

The park looked like it had somehow been upkeep recently, and the wet grass had clearly been walked on by many people not long ago. But the place had obviously deteriorated over the years. It used to be a boarding school for young girls of good upbringing who were sent there in the middle of nowhere to learn what young girls were supposed to know. When the school had finally closed for lack of applicants, the manor had been abandoned for a very long time and the remnants of this time of neglect and silence were still visible.

Later, a couple of rich British people had finally bought the place and they used to come regularly to spend their holidays and had finished their lives there. After both had died, around ten years before, the manor had become a jointly owned property and had remained again uninhabited for a long time. Until very recently.

For months now, the manor's resounded again with new calls, yells, noise, life.

Every owner had once worked for the Watcher's Council in some way or another, so when the Council's survivors and new members, who worked to gather a new Council destined to lead the newly called Slayers, had contacted them, it was not long before they decided to grant Rupert Giles' request and to donate this old family property lost in Oregon where nobody of the family had come for years, to the Watchers Council. The manor had finally regained its first purpose. Just like before, dozens of young girls now lived there and were given a singular training.

The dormitories were still on the second and third floors of the building. They had been refitted a little in order to allow more intimacy than what was possible at the time of the boarding school, but a former boarder would probably recognize the place. The dining hall was working again and had been largely modernized. It was the gathering place where everyone would meet for lunch and diner and spend some time together. On the other hand, the classrooms had nothing left of what they were once. Only a few of them had been kept for this purpose in the main wing of the building, but modernized and entirely equipped. Some dividing walls had been knocked down, the walls painted, all furniture replaced. No classroom could be found in the side wing. The complete first floor was now a wide gymnasium, filled from morning to evening. Several bay windows opened on the park and remained wide-opened during the summer when the good weather would allow the girls to leave the gymnasium to make the most of the good outdoor air.

For their part, members of the training staff resided on the second floor of the side wing where they could enjoy what little breathing space their frantic life would allow.

That night, dinner had been served at the same time as usually and was now over. The residents had then hanged about and gone about their business as their schedule allowed them. An hour exactly after the end of the diner, the old bell of the boarding school had rang out, inviting all the boarders to gather in the gymnasium for the last training session of the day before going to bed. For an hour now, in groups of two or three, the girls kept repeating the same kicking and punching gestures, the same dodging movements, the same small leaps, the same feints. Most of them were not much older than thirteen or fourteen years old, and the few being around sixteen, passed among the groups to correct a gesture or to give a tip or a word of encouragement.

Leaning in the doorway of the main entrance, a young, yet slightly older, redhead woman was watching the scene thoughtfully, an air of worry crossing her face. At first sight, it would have been difficult to say if Violet Stanford, known as a "second generation Slayer" - nearly a living Goddess for her protégées for having survived the now famous battle of Sunnydale - was really watching her group of Slayers, or if she was looking at the driving rain, streaming along the bay windows on the other side of the room.

She looked down a second to her watch on her right wrist, then to her cellphone she held in her left hand. Then, she looked up, and her eyes followed a group of girls who appeared to work particularly hard in front of her. She watched them for a moment longer and sighed. Finally, she dialed a number on her phone and turned on her heels to give her phone call in the corridor.

* * *

Faith was walking in the middle of the sidewalk with her hands deeply buried in her jeans pockets. Thin rain was falling upon her hair and shoulders and slided in her neck, but she did not appear to notice nor care. Whereas other passers-by were hurrying under umbrellas or awnings of the shops lining the street, the Slayer was walking slowly under the gray sky, indifferent to the water splashing on her already damp clothes. Her shoes were wet too from crossing more or less deep pools, and Faith could feel her feet soaking with humidity.

But it did not matter. A few more steps and the Slayer would be at the motel where she now stayed alone since the day before.

She automatically hurried when she finally caught sight of the purple neon which told visitors where the building stood. She crossed the porch which marked the entrance and stopped in front of the reception bay window. She glanced at the clock hanging above the desk and saw it marking quarter to eleven. Faith hesitated to open the door and come in to talk to the receptionist. But the woman was busy with a couple of late customers and Faith just shrugged before resuming her lonely walk. She crossed the small courtyard, walked quickly up the stairs leading to the second floor and stopped in front of her room's door. The curtains were drawn and no light could be seen coming from the room, but Faith delayed the moment she would open the door for a few more seconds. Finally, she slided her magnetic key in the lock and pushed the door. The room was dark and the brunette switched the lights on as she closed the door behind her. She stayed a moment right before the closed door and beheld the room, looking for something, a detail that would have changed while she was away. When she had to admit that nothing had moved at all, she sighed and threw the key of the room casually on the desk at her right. Then, she started to undress, discarded her wet clothes on the back of a chair or directly on the floor, before heading to the bathroom to take a hot shower.


	2. Act 1

The afternoon neared its end, noticed Faith when she glanced at the old wall clock hanging at the main wall of the shed. The clock's hands moved to show five pm and a piercing alarm then rang. Faith finished to close the cardboard box which she was working on with a wide gesture of the sealer before putting it back into place. Then she lifted the box and put it on a cart she found a few feet from there. Finally, she removed the large worn-out gloves she was wearing and casually threw them into a basket near the cart like a dozen men around her. While most of her colleagues of the day headed for the door, Faith just looked around the room, searching for someone. She spotted a moderately tall man wearing an orange vest who was automatically each of the men as they left, while himself looked rather focused on the piece of paper he held in his hand.

Faith walked resolutely toward him and he looked up as she approached.

"Hey Faith," he told her. "Good day?"

"S'okay," Faith grumbled, as she obviously was not there to do small talk. "I'd like to get may day paid"

He nodded quickly, obviously aware of what she would ask before she did. He put away the papers he held on a stool near the cart where dozens of carboard were now piled, and gestured for her to follow. They crossed the shed until arriving to a small locked office, and Faith followed him inside.

"I take you ain't staying then?" the man asked, his name being Billy according to the tag hanging at his chest.

"I'm not sure," Faith answered on a non-committal tone. "I wasn't supposed to stay at all."

"I know," Billy answered while rummaging in a drawer. "You told me you'd take the job only for a day or two. But you're a good worker. If you want to be back tomorrow, you'll be welcome"

Faith nodded her head, but did not bother to reply. Billy took a pocket calculator from the drawer, took a pen, did some calculation he wrote down to a piece of paper, then he opened another drawer of the desk from which he took a few bills that he put in an envelope with the aforementioned piece of paper. Finally, he handed it to Faith.

"Thanks," Faith said quickly, putting the envelope in her pocket.

"If you leave and go south to California, I can arrange you to meet my uncle," Billy said gently. "He had a factory of his own near Fresno. Tell him I'm sending you and he too will accept to take you on a daily basis."

Saying this, he rummaged once more in a drawer and got a small card from it he handed to Faith. The brunette grabbed it and thanked him again while Billy locked the drawers again and was getting ready to leave. Once outside, he closed and locked the door carefully.

"I hope I see you tomorrow," he said with a smile while Faith was getting away. "If not, good luck then"

Faith nodded and said goodbye once more, then crossed the shed door. Once outside, she took the tag with her name that she wore at her chest, crumpled it and threw it in the closest dustbin. Finally she took the way to her motel. She walked fifteen minutes before finally seeing the motel appearing at the end of a long monotonous street. Like the day before, Faith stopped by the reception door. The receptionist were still two at work at this time of the day, and as no patron were there, they were talking quietly. Faith wavered a second for a moment then finally decided to push the door opened. The women behind the counter interrupted their conversation as she entered and one literally jumped to her feet.

"Hello!" she exclaimed happily. "I am Marietta and I am at your service. What can I do to help you?"

Faith rolled her eyes and found herself at a lack for words, not really knowing why she had come in.

"Hum..." she said after a moment. "I am a customer. Room 112 since last week."

"Of course!" Marietta interrupted on a piercing tone. "I've recognized you of course!"

Faith did not reply to the woman's wide smile, and after a brief hesitation, she finally asked in a somewhat embarrassed tone:

"Did I get visitors or phone call while I was away?"

"I'm checking immediately!" the woman answered with no less enthusiasm than previously.

She rummaged slightly around her, checked a registry, before turning back to Faith.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I have nothing for you. Do you expect something or somebody in particular? Is there something we can note down to be sure we don't miss it?" she added, already seizing a pen.

"No, no," Faith answered. "You don't need to... It was... just in case. Thank you."

And with that, she quickly went out to go back to her room.

It was as desert and unchanged as the day before. Her clothes drenched by the previous night's rain were still drying on the chair or lying on the opened bed, while an empty pizza box was still scattered on the table.

"Room service's not terrible..." the Slayer grumbled.

She came back to the door and opened it and noticed wearily that she had forgot to remove her "do not disturb" tag. She had not even noticed when she first came in in her haste to enter. She took it from the handle and casually threw it on the desk after closing the door once more. Then she retrieved her day salary from her pocket and the envelope Billy had given her ended on the desk in its turn. After a brief moment of hesitation, she started then to clean the place: she tore the pizza box and put it in the trashbin, gathered her clothes and rapidly folded them. While she was struggling with a particularly difficult shirt, it occured to her that she had not needed to clean anything for quite some time. She shook her head to forget the idea as quickly as it had come, and finally gave up on folding the shirt correctly. It eventually ended balled up in the deep of her travel bag.

When she was done with her task, Faith plopped down on the chair by the desk and took the calendar from underneath everything that had been thrown over. The last two days had been crossed in black, and the Slayer stared at the dates for a moment, seemingly lost in deep thoughts. Her fingers ran over the days, then she turned to a half unfolded map of the area on which a itinerary had been drawn with a pencil. She remained still several minutes, her right hand's fingers taping the edge of the table while the left one went from the calendar to the map. Finally, Faith threw the calendar back to its original place and stood, sighing.

"The hell with that," she said for nobody to hear. "Let's have some fun after all!"

* * *

Faith did not know if the 'Holding the night' was the only place in the area where she could dance – which was probably true – but anyway, it was the only place she knew and she liked the bar enough. Decided to make the most of her recent freedom, the brunette was moving with her usual ease in the middle of the dancefloor, the ambiance being quite different from her previous visits. Some remixed Madonna appeared to be the theme of the night. She knew how to get people to look at her if she wanted to, and though she was way calmer than she used to be, tonight was no exception. Having still not decided what she expected from that night, Faith just ignored her suitors offers for the time being, only answering to Jason Jr waves of hand from behind his bar.

As a new song started, Faith headed for the counter, refused a new offer as she passed and plopped down onto a stool. The waiter quickly came to her.

"What would you like?" he asked kindly. "Another beer?"

She nodded, and seconds later, a full mug was standing under her nose. When she made as if to rummage her pockets for money, he raised his hand to protest.

"No, no, no," he said firmly. "This is for me."

Faith did not need to be told twice.

"Having a good night?" Jason asked as he settled in front of her.

As the Slayer nodded, and before she gave a vocal answer, he looked around and asked:

"Tara's not with you?"

"Looks like not," Faith answered, slightly annoyed; and she did not give any detail.

He must have gotten her tone of voice because he did not push the issue.

"I thought you were only here for a few days. Staying for a while ?"

The brunette shrugged.

"Dunno," she said in a non-committal tone. "I was thinking about leaving tomorrow or the day after. Still not sure."

"Going where?"

She shrugged again casually.

"Dunno,' she said once more. "I think I'll see when I leave."

He wanted to add something, but seeing how Faith looked annoyed, the young man did not quite know what to say. But Faith decided she would not ruin her evening, and changed the subject herself.

"What about you? What have you done with your father? I didn't see him around tonight."

It was his turn this time, to look annoyed, at the mention of his father.

"He's not there," he confirmed. "I kind of avoid him these days."

"Have you reached a decision?" she asked.

He grimaced slightly.

"I called the number you gave me. I explained what happed to a man, just like you said..."

He fell silent, appeared to be thinking about what to say.

"I know that what happened was terrible. But he's still my father..."

Faith gave him the ghost of a bitter smile.

"Yeah, I kinda get that," she said, more for herself than him, as she raised her mug to her lips.

He wavered a little, ignored the gestures of a girl who was trying to get his attention, and turned again to Faith before asking in a whisper:

"What will they do to him if...?"

It took Faith half a second to understand what he meant, then she shrugged after a brief hesitation.

"I don't really know..." she admitted in a sympathetic voice. "It's not really my thing."

When she saw the disappointed look appearing on his face, she hastily went on:

"But they're not murderers. They're the good guys. Most of the time."

She realized that this last part would not do anything to reassure him but it was too late. She tried a smile, but the conversation stopped there.

"Thanks for the information, but I gotta go, too many people waiting..."

With that, he quickly went to the group of patrons who were waiting for a drink a few feet away from the Slayer. The brunette's loneliness did not last though. Jason had hardly left when someone else plopped down on the empty stool to Faith's right.

"Hey," the newcomer said happily.

The young woman turned her head and recognized Luke. He was broadly smiling at her, obviously happy to meet her.

"I didn't expect to see you again," he confirmed. "You told me you were leaving the day after." he added, mentioning his last encounter with the Slayer.

Faith shrugged.

"Change in plans," she answered casually, hardly looking at him.

"Can't say it bothers me," he said, still smiling. Then, he looked around, as if looking for something or someone, and added:

"Tara's not here?"

Faith shook her head and took another sip of her drink.

"No, she's not here. She left."

"Oh," he simply commented, probably trying to decipher Faith's somewhat mysterious tone on the subject.

He wavered shortly, before deciding to make the most of this piece of information.

"So, I've got you all for me tonight then?" he asked with a somewhat mischievous smile.

His good mood and optimism finally got the better of Faith, and she smiled. She turned frankly to him, considered his happy expression and brightened a little:

"You have no idea..."

* * *

It was raining again, Vi told herself when she awoke : it was a light rain which she could barely hear streaming along the gutters or against the windows. The woman turned to the alarm-clock on her bed table to her left. The bright red numbers displayed midnight. Vi whispered lazily and stayed a few minutes to listen to the sounds outside, wondering what had woken her. A storm maybe? But she could not hear any thunder rumble in the distance, and the sound of the rain was definitely too low to be the reason she was awake in the middle of the night, even if she had become a light sleeper over the past two years. She rose on her elbows and listened again. Rain, wind blowing in the leaves. Despite her enhanced Slayer senses, Vi did not hear anything else. She finally fell back on her mattress and turned to the wall, deciding to come back to sleep. She closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up to her chin.

She turned and turned again in her narrow bed, but there was nothing she could do : sleep would not come to her. After half an hour struggling to get back to sleep, Vi gave up. She groped around for the switch of her bed lamp and sat up as she switched the light on. She looked around her small room to make sure nothing had moved. The check was quickly done: though she enjoyed a personal room, it was her unique privilege. The room was tiny and only contained a single bed, a bed table and a large wooden wardrobe. Vi had taken the time to put some decoration on the walls to make the place somewhat more welcoming : in particular, a large corked panel was hung over her bed with pictures of family and friends. In the middle of them, a large picture of herself, Rona, Kennedy, Sho-Ann and a few others taken just a few days after the battle in the hellmouth, could be seen. There was no more private bathroom in her room than in any other. Vi shared the bathroom right next to her room with two other Slayers.

She finally stood and quickly slipped into a pair of gray leggings she found on the edge of the bed, then took a black polo-neck sweater in the back of her wardrobe. A pair of shoes and socks later, Vi rummaged in the drawer of a bed table to find a flashlight. With that in hand, she went out in the corridor as silently as possible. Vi scanned her surroundings at the light of her torch. There was no single sound nor move. The young woman walked toward the stairs, attentive to any noise. She climbed the stairs up to the second floor which was just as still and silent. Vi crossed the corridor slowly, sometimes pausing behind a door to listen. Once relieved, she resumed her silent walk to the next stop. At the end of the corridor, Vi found herself in front of a glass door opening on an outside platform which lead to the main wing of the building. Vi considered the rain streaming along the window for a few seconds before deciding to push the door open carefully. The cold bit her face and she had to prevent herself from rushing to the main wing door and opening with noisy haste. Instead of this, Vi slipped as silently as ever in the corridor of the second floor dormitories. Everything was silent, and in the halo of her flashlight, Vi saw it was also deserted. But once arrived at the bottom of the steps leading to the highest floor, she knew her patrol would not end as calmly as it had begun: whispers could be heard from the top floor. Vi then gave up any pretense of silence and climbed the stairs two at once. At the top, three girls jumped when Vi's flashlight lighted their faces. Vi quickly walked over to them, at first shared between annoyance and worry. Worry definitely won over when she noticed that one of the boarders had been crying.

"Shirley? What happened?" she asked hastily, her tone betraying her anxiety.

As the girl called Shirley – a blonde who probably was not more than fourteen years old – started to cry again, Vi turned to the two other girls:

"Camille, Natalie, what happened?"

Both were older than their friends, and they exchanged an embarrassed look before replying:

"It's Hope..."

The name was barely spoken that Vi was rolling her eyes.

"What about her again?" she asked on a dry tone, her previous anxiety forgotten.

"I beg her Vi, I promise..." Shirley quavered, looking up to the redhead Slayer, her eyes filling with tears. "But she wouldn't listen..."

"What happened?" Vi interrupted impatiently. "Where is she?"

The three girls exchanged a new glance and Shirley cried a little louder as she opened her mouth to say something. Before Vi asked her question again, the taller of the three, Camille, answered with a slight french accent:

"She's gone."

"Gone?" Vi exclaimed, feeling suddenly very awoke. "What do you mean gone? Gone where?"

"She left," said the girl called Natalie. "She took her pack and cleared off. She took the fire escape and I think she crossed the park and climb the wall at the back where it's the lowest."

"She told us she was about to get fired and she didn't want to come home. She said she would rather leave and do her own thing." Camille resumed.

Vi rolled her eyes, once more, and her arms fell dangling at her sides.

"I can't believe it..." she whispered more for herself than for the kids in front of her.

She appeared to think for a minute while the three girls stared at her expectantly.

"What are we supposed to do Vi?" Shirley asked, drying her tears.

"Go back to bed," Vi ordered after a moment. "I'll take care of that."

"Going back to bed?" Natalie repeated.

"That's exactly what I said." Vi answered severely. "Go back to bed before waking up all the squad. We'll talk about it again tomorrow. Now."

The three girls looked at each other again, and eventually turned on their heels to comply with Vi's order, her tone leaving no room to protestation.

"Camille, Nat, take Shirley with you for the night, don't leave her alone." the redhead added.

Camille nodded and put her arm around the youngest girl's shoulder in a friendly gesture to pull her behind her and her roommate. Vi waited for the door to close behind the three girls and switched her flashlight off. She sighed once more, waited for another moment and finally turned on her heels. She nearly ran back to her room, and once there, grabbed her cellphone she had left on her bed table. She dialed a number quickly, and waited a few seconds before whoever she was calling, answered.

"This is Vi," she said hastily. "I think we have a problem..."

* * *

"It's there," Faith said casually, as she slid her room key in the lock.

A click told her the door was unlocked and she pushed it open, pulling Luke along behind her by his belt. He did not show any resistance and closed the door behind them. Faith switched the light on and Luke took in his surroundings. The room was perfectly clean, the bed was neatly made, and except a few papers and a map on the desk, he could see no personal item anywhere.

"Nice," he commented.

He sat on the bed after taking off his coat while Faith was closing the curtains. Then she came back to him with a slight smirk. He wanted to stand when she arrived beside him, but Faith prevented him to do so, and pushed him back lightly before sitting astride his knees.

"So, where were we at?" she breathed in a sensual tone as she leaned over him.

"Hum..." he answered appreciatively as the young woman slightly licked behind his ear.

Then, Faith went down his neck, and slowly on his nape, which resulted in his hairs erecting at the contact. The brunette then slid her hand to his belt and pulled his shirt off his pants before gliding her cold fingers on his skin. He shivered and stretched his hand toward her waist. Faith did not let him do what he had in mind and instead, pushed on his chest so that he fell lying on the bed.

Luke let it happen, the Slayer's forward attitude being obviously to his liking. Faith leaned over him, rolled his shirt up his chest very slowly. Her skilled fingers lingered along his sides, then his stomach, his chest, and were soon followed by the brunette's warm tongue. She removed his top and while she was about to go back to his right collarbone, he stopped her, putting suddenly his hand on Faith's neck and pulling her closer to kiss her frankly. The Slayer answered to the kiss, even biting slightly at his lips, and she ran her hands again up to his belt and opened it roughly. Luke reacted at once: his hands went down from Faith's neck to the bottom of her tank top and he started to pull it to the top. Faith stopped him and took care of that task herself. In one nimble movement, her top joined Luke's on the floor. The young man removed his shoes while Faith started to unbutton her partner's jeans before taking care of her owns. Then she grabbed the top of Luke's jeans and slid it along his thighs. When the he was finally in his underwear on the bed, she stood above him and started to slip her jeans off seductively. Luke tried to come to her help but Faith instructed him to remain still with a mischievous glance. He obeyed and watched, feeling his desire growing with each passing second. When she was finally done, the Slayer straddled her partner again, pressing her intimacy against his own, which elicited a husky whisper on his part. He pulled her closer again and tried to topple her over but Faith resisted, showing clearly she was the one in charge. She kissed him roughly while her hands caressed his chest and glided slowly against his thighs. She made this torture last during minutes that probably felt longer to Luke as he grew more and more excited, and he moaned loudly when she finally slided her hand into his underpants before removing them swiftly. He then moved his hands to the back of her bra to take it off and she allowed him to proceed. She leaned again over him to kiss him as he started to caress her breasts and she began to remove her panties, when the Slayer's cellphone suddenly rang in the room.

It did not appear to bother Luke who went on what he was doing as he did not even hear, but Faith stopped abruptly and freed herself from his embrace.

"I must answer," she said quickly and she pushed him away when he tried to capture her lips again.

"Really?" he asked seductively. "Now, you sure?"

She nodded hastily.

"Really," she replied and stood.

He sighed and fell back on the matress while Faith scanned the room, looking for her cellphone. She jumped off the bed, ran to the desk, lifted a few papers hurriedly, frenetically rummaged the pockets of her jacket hanging on the chair before gazing frantically at the rest of the room when she did not find it.

"Waiting for an important call?" Luke asked, seeing her in such a hurry to answer.

She did not bother to reply and rushed to the pile of clothes scattered on the floor. She turned her jeans' pocket inside out after disentangling them from Luke's, and finally found the ringing phone under the clothes' pile. In her haste to grab it, Faith nearly missed to release it under the bed and she had to start again twice before correctly picking it up.

"Hey, hey, it's me," she announced quickly and she stood again and taking a step to get away from Luke.

He leaned forward to watch the young woman's face with attention, wondering what mysterious call she could be waiting so impatiently. But when the caller spoke, it soon became evident to the look of deep disappointment which replaced the one of hope on Faith's face, that whoever was calling was not the person the brunette was expecting.

"Oh, Giles, it's you..." Faith mumbled, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

On the other end of the line, the Watcher at first, did not pay attention to the young woman's tone, as engrossed in whatever he was about to say.

"Ah, Faith," he began. "I am happy to hear y..."

Then he apparently realized the Slayer's unhappy tone and interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Hum... maybe it's a bad time?" he asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Could hardly be worse," Faith freely admitted. "What's up?" she interrupted to get to the point.

Giles only briefly wavered and swept aside any required pleasantries to go straight to his request as Faith suggested.

"I am afraid I need your help," the Watcher started.

"My help about what?" Faith interrupted again impatiently and she got a little farther from the bed and slipped her panties on again.

"Hum, we have a little problem in training center in Oregon. You do remember Violet, I suppose?"

"Of course I remember Vi..." grumbled Faith. "A redhead not as silly as she looked who was in Sunnydale?"

Giles appeared to hesitate a moment over the description. He finally cleared his throat before answering:

"Hum, I guess we put it that way..." he admitted, before resuming. "Well, Violet leads a training center for young Slayers in Oregon..."

"I've got it so far," Faith cut him again. "What's the problem?"

"If you just stopped interrupting me..." Giles began.

FAith was about to react again, but the British man cut her short as he went on:

"We have a problem with one of the boarders who has escaped and..."

"Escaped?" Faith said ironically with a smirk. "I thought the kids were free to come or not?"

"They are of course," Giles replied a little dryly. "But we must consider this situation carefully as I think she might be a danger to herself and others..."

"I see..." Faith whispered, leaning against the wall behind her. "What about me? You want me to come to lecture her?"

"I would like you to go and find her," Giles explained. "And to bring her back to the center. Are you in still in Oregon? I think the best option would be to go to the center to see Violet so that she can explain herself. Your help would be greatly appreciated." he added after a brief silence.

"I'm nearly in California," Faith answered. "Where's the place?"

Giles gave her a few indications and Faith went back to the desk where she spread out her map. She looked for something, traced a route with a finger, frowning.

"It's a long road," she said. "Can't be there before tomorrow afternoon"

'I did not expect anything else," Giles answered. "Do your best. I'll inform Violet of your arrival. She will explain the details."

"Yeah..." Faith said. "Okay."

"Thank you very much Faith. I will call you back when you get there. My regards to Tara, and be careful on the road."

"Yeah..." Faith repeated with a grimace.

"Goodbye."

And he hung up. Faith remained still for a moment, her cellphone in hand. Then she grabbed her jeans at her feet and slipped it on quickly.

"What are you doing?" asked Luke surprisingly.

Faith turned around and realized that for a second, she had forgotten about him.

"Ah, sorry, I've forgotten you," she answered, not sounding sorry at all.

She slipped her jeans off again and came back casually toward the bed.

"Since you're there, let's get back where we were," she said.

"Ouch," he commented, slightly annoyed. "I've seen more excited in front of a pile of clothes to iron. Are you kidding? I'm hot and half naked in your bed. Some girls would kill for that."

He tried to put some humor in his tone to hide his bitterness a little, but Faith was not amused. She pushed him slightly on the bed, straddled him and put her hand directly to his crotch. He gasped, both in desire and pain at the brutality of the contact.

"Listen Mr Oregon or whatever you think you are, it's that or nothing. If you don't like it, you know where to find the door." she spat, leaning over his ear and increasing her pressure on his member.

He appeared to waver for a second and as Faith was about to stand, he finally stammered:

"Okay, as you wish, no problem."

"Perfect," Faith answered without smiling. "Let's get this done."

And she pushed him again to make him lay under her.


	3. Act 2

Faith slowed her car as she arrived near a crossroads. She stopped, though there was no other vehicle in sight, and seized the opportunity to grab a piece of paper on the passenger seat where an address and directions were scribbled down. Faith read and leaned slightly to be able to see the name of the street where she was, and the name of the street crossing it. She wavered a second and turned right. The Slayer sighed and rubbed her eyes with her left hand. She felt extremely tired, and it was not the kind of enjoyable tiredness she liked after a night of slaying. The road had been long, winding, monotonous and had felt endless to the Slayer. Faith had stopped a few times and had been close to fall asleep once or twice while driving. She felt relieved to finally reach her goal. In less than a mile, the young woman would be finally at destination.

She slowed down again and tilted her head to search for the training center's gate. When she finally caught sight of it after a long row of hedges, she finally stopped the car and the engine. Faith dragged herself slowly out of the car, and despite the biting cold welcoming her, she felt satisfied to breathe some fresh air for more than a few minutes. She closed her door then opened the rear one to get a bag she threw over her shoulder before locking the car. She quickly crossed the distance to the high iron gate and looked for a way to draw attention to her presence. She found a little ringing button half hidden under ivy growing along the pillars around the gate. Not even ten seconds later, the gate creaked and started slowly to open. As soon as she was able, Faith slided inside and walked up the alley leading to the mansion she had caught sight of from the street. She found herself quickly in front on the front door and had to knock when nobody came to open. It was not long before the brunette heard quick footsteps inside and the door finally opened, revealing a redhead teenage girl.

"What is it?" she asked in a laconic tone.

"I'm Faith," the brunette Slayer answered after a brief hesitation. "I believe Vi must be waiting for me."

As the girl was about to turn around to call to someone, Vi appeared in her turn in the doorway.

"Hey Faith," she said with a slight nod.

"Hey Vi," Faith answered as the door opened wide to make room for her to come in.

The Slayer did not need to be told twice, and once the door closed behind her, she enjoyed the nicer temperature inside. The teenager had slipped away without a word, and Faith found herself alone with Vi in the lobby.

"You look good," Faith perfunctory said, in an attempt that herself found quite pathetic, to make small talk.

"Forget about the greetings," Vi told her. "I kind of know you're not very good at that sort of stuff."

Faith pouted but did not deny and went immediately to the point.

"So," she said as Vi gestured for her to follow in a corridor. "What's happening here?"

"Giles has not told you?" Vi asked.

She pushed a door and both girls entered a small office furnished with an old sofa and two worn-leathered armchairs circling a large fireplace where a fire was burning its end. Faith did not wait for the offer to allow herself to flop down into one of the armchair, while Vi threw some logs into the fire and poked the dying flames. When she was satisfied with herself, the redhead came sitting in the remaining armchair.

"Do you know where you are?" Vi started, and as Faith was rolling her eyes, she resumed quickly: "I mean, do you know what we're doing here? What's this center is?"

Faith's expression went from slightly annoyed surprise to frank annoyance.

"Of course," she grumbled. "It's a training center for Slayers"

"To be more accurate," Vi said with an obvious hint of satisfaction about correcting her counterpart. "It's a training center for young Slayers." she clarified, emphasizing the word 'young'.

Faith could not help casting her a dubious glance and wavered about what possible answer - most preferably scathing - she could give. Vi made the most of her hesitation to go on:

"I have no idea what you know exactly about the organization of the Slayers' training, but Giles and the Council decided very early on to create different types of centers: those located on hellmouthes where only girls previously trained and considered 'ready' are sent - Vi mimicked the use of quotation marks with her hands as she said the word ready - then we have the most classical and common centers where most girls go, and finally we have the centers for young Slayers where are sent..." Vi explained as if repeating a well-learned lesson, before the brunette interrupted:

"Let me guess," Faith said ironically. "Young Slayers?"

Vi pouted but nevertheless went on:

"Fifteen years old and younger," she explained.

"So what?" Faith asked, now convinced she would not avoid a complete lecture about Slayers training centers.

"So here, we only have fifteen years old girls and younger. We start their training, we teach them how to master and use their strength, to develop their agility, to study the demon world..."

"Must be fascinating..." The brunette Slayer mumbled, only listening distractedly.

"It is," Vi protested firmly. "Those kids will be well trained when leaving the center for a more serious one. They won't be completely dumbfounded when they meet their first vampires."

"You mean they never saw a single vampire?" Faith asked, arching an eyebrow.

"They're not even fifteen," Vi reminded her. "We're supposed to keep them safe here. Why do you think we chose such a godforsaken place?"

"I can assure you there are monsters even in godforsaken places"

"Okay, I admit it's because the mansion was given to the Council"

Faith snickered and asked:

"So study of demons in books?"

"Yes," the redhead confirmed. "They've got a good training here" she insisted.

"I have no doubt about that," Faith answered, though she had no real advice on the matter. "But what brought me here? Giles talked about a problem"

"I was about to tell you the whole story: one of our girls ran off last night. I've searched for her today with the older girls, but with no luck. I can't leave the center alone for too far or too long. I'm the only experienced Slayer here, you know?"

"Why did the kid run away?" Faith asked.

"Oh, she's kind of peculiar…" Vi started.

"I see," Faith grumbled. "So Giles and you thought that I could run after her since I'm a little 'peculiar' myself?"

"It all depends of what one means with peculiar…" Vi began, before interrupting herself and saying: "Well, that's the idea."

Faith rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Haven't she just come back home?"

Vi shook her head.

"No, if there's something I'm pretty sure about, it's this. She hasn't left to come back to her parents."

"Have you called them?"

Vi gave her an embarrassed grimace.

"To be fair, I haven't… I'd like to find her before calling her family…"

Faith rolled her eyes again and arched a questioning eyebrow.

"How can you be sure she's not back home if you haven't called her family?"

"I know she did not want me to send her back there, so I think she did not go back herself."

"Let's say you're right," Faith said. "So, if I understand correctly, that kid left one day before I came and you have no idea where she might have gone?"

"Well, that's not entirely true…" Vi answered, still a little embarrassed. "If there's something else I know about her, it's that she really likes to find trouble…"

"What a lead…" Faith grumbled.

"Her name's Hope," Vi went on. "I'm going to show you a picture of her and her files. It could help too if you could talk with her roommate."

"Here we go then," Faith said, already rising from her armchair.

"Don't you want to sleep?" the redhead asked. "It was a long drive for you and to be honest, you look terrible."

"Thanks," Faith grimaced. "But she left last night. If I sleep now and only take care of this tomorrow, she will be two days nights ahead of me. Sounds bad."

"You should at least rest a little and have a bite to eat." The redhead insisted.

"Well, can't say no, I'm starving!"

"I knew it!" Vi replied with a smile. "Come with me, I'll take Hope's files and I'm bringing you to the kitchen before going to see Hope's buddies."

"Okay," Faith confirmed, finally standing for good. "Let's go."

Vi stood up and went to a wooden cabinet behind the sofa. She rummaged there for a moment before taking a blue folder where a name had been scribbled down.

"That's the archives," Vi explained. "The files are digital mostly. But Giles insisted we kept a paper version."

Faith nodded and followed the redhead when she left the office to lead her along several corridors. They reached the kitchen quickly and Vi invited Faith to sit while she opened a cupboard.

"Service's over," she explained. "Kitchen attendants have already left. You'll have to do with a hamburger if that's fine with you."

Faith confirmed with a nod.

"Whatever," she said. "I'm not hard to please."

Vi could not help a chuckle at this and commented:

"Well, that's a well known fact, how you're so easy going…"

The brunette then thought best to clarify:

"About food I mean."

"That's how I understood it," Vi said with an amused grin, while throwing two steaks on the grill and opening a piece of bread.

She filled it with salad, tomatoes, gherkins and various sauces all in generous portions, while Faith flopped down on the table beside her and allowed herself to close her eyes for an instant.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?" Vi insisted. "Some sleep would do some good."

"I'll be fine," the brunette refused. "I don't want to run around after your fugitive for days. Better taking care of this quickly."

"If you say so…" Vi answered distractedly as she turned the steaks on the grill.

The cooking ended in silence and the redhead soon served the hamburger to her counterpart who was more than happy to take it.

"Thanks," she managed between two bites.

Vi opened another cupboard where she took a large bag of chips that she put next to the dark-haired Slayer's plate.

"And that's the rest of your diner," she announced.

Faith nodded and looked satisfied, but with her mouth full, she preferred not to answer. Vi tore the bag opened for her and served her some chips without thinking. Then, she opened Hope's folder and turned toward Faith for her to be able to read while eating. The brunette did not look very interested though and Vi thought better to read out loud for her.

"Hope is fourteen years old," she started. "Her birthday was two months ago. She's the third child in a family of four from North Dakota. Below-average student, raised in a very patriarchal environment where she did not seem to have a great future ahead. Her parents didn't look unhappy to get rid of her ten months a year."

"Ten months?" Faith interrupted, slightly surprised. "What are they doing the other two months?"

This time, Vi was the one to roll her eyes.

"It's a school here. These kids have vacations to see their families."

"I thought the Slayer's creed was all 'no family, no friend'?" Faith ironically asked.

"You should get yourself informed a little more often. The Slayer's myth has been largely modernized these last two years. You know there're thousands of us now?"

"I think I might have heard something about it…" Faith said with a smile.

Vi grumbled something and went on with her reading about Hope.

"So, Hope arrived here about seven months ago, after a quick stay in Cleveland for the sorting."

"The sorting?" Faith repeated.

"Faith!" Vi exclaimed with exasperation. "you don't know what's the sorting either?"

"Well, I've read the Harry Potter books like everyone else, but apart from that…"

"You did?" Vi asked with genuine surprise. "Whatever," she interrupted herself, not waiting for an answer. "Every girl goes first to Cleveland, London or Tokyo to be assessed by experienced Slayer and Watcher before being sorted and sent to another center…"

"An experienced Slayer?" Faith repeated with a smirk. "And who sorted our kid?"

"Kennedy," Vi replied at once.

This answer interrupted the ironic comment about the so-called Slayers' experience Faith was about to make, just like Vi had expected. It was common knowledge that Faith considered Buffy and herself as standing apart from the Slayers' crowd thanks to their common longer time as Slayers, but she also respected Kennedy a great deal, after the other Slayer had saved her life twice and whose qualities were praised by all of her counterparts.

"Kenn dealt with that?" the brunette just asked.

"For a time. She was very popular with the kids."

"There's no doubt about that," Faith commented, thinking how she found Kennedy's unfailing self-confidence amusing most of the time.

"Let's get back to Hope," Vi resumed. "She's one of a kind and likes to seek for trouble. She already mentioned she would go over the wall a few times, but it's the first time she indeed does it. To tell you the truth, some part of me hoped she would come back today"

"What kind of trouble does she like seeking?"

"Oh, fights, demons, graveyards, see?"

"I think I see."

Faith finished her hamburger, swallowed a full handful of chips, and satisfied, she stood from the table where she had settled for diner.

"Let's go and see her roommates to see if they have an idea about where she might have gone."

Vi nodded, grabbed Faith's plate quickly and just put it in the sink before gesturing for Faith to follow her.

"I already asked," she explained as they walked. "We made a list of possible places and visited some already today."

"If they're graveyards or things like that, it's useless to go in broad daylight," Faith replied. "If the kid's looking for monsters and if she has listened just a bit during classes, she knows she has to go at night."

They climbed the stairs quickly up to the dormitories, and Vi was surprised to find most of the girls of this floor gathered in discussion at the end of the corridor, instead of being in their rooms. When they appeared at the top of the stairs, every girl turned to them and fell silent. Faith could not miss the fact that all of them were staring at her, and the brunette tried to conceal as best as she could how uneasy she felt at being scrutinized like this by a dozen of teenage girls.

"What are you doing here?" Vi asked severely. "You should be in your rooms."

Some glanced at each other, slightly embarrassed, but none of them started for her room.

"We knew you would come to talk about Hope," explained the girl called Natalie.

"Let's get to the point then," Vi sighed.

Then, she turned to Faith and gestured to her:

"This is Faith, the second original Slayer, the last one called with the former spell, she…"

"We know who she is," interrupted another young Slayer, casting a quick glance toward Faith, but not daring meeting her eyes.

"Of course," Vi mumbled for herself. Then louder for everyone to hear: "Faith is here to help us looking for Hope," she explained. "I need you to give her any information you can regarding where Hope might have gone, everything she might have talked about recently."

Silence followed and Vi looked around, but no one looked ready to speak. Faith glanced at Vi and hoped she would insist. As she remained silent, Faith took charge and spoke in her turn.

"Anything could be helpful," she started in an encouraging tone. "What are you talking about before sleeping at night? Haven't Hope tell you anything particular?"

The girls exchanged glances, and Camille – a tall, tan-skinned, hazel-eyed brunette, obviously the older of the group, apparently set herself as the spokesperson.

"Well, the thing with Hope is that she just keeps on talking, so, we don't really listen anymore…" she began carefully, before resuming quickly upon seeing the impatient frown on the older Slayers' faces. "Two months ago, she swore she would leave to find a 'real' cemetery, the one on Harrington's, last month, she said there were zombies in another graveyard not too far from here, another time she wanted to go and seek out a so-called demon in a swamp… She keeps on going on and on about real monsters you can find around and how she will go and kill them at night."

"Why on earth none of you has ever told me she had such ideas?" Vi yelped, obviously furious. "Don't you have any idea about what could happen to her if she really carries these ideas out!"

All young Slayers looked down to their feet or looked around, anywhere but Vi who looked more furious by the minute, something Faith had never seen in her before.

"Well, this kind of thing? She keeps telling stories like that," Camille resumed. "But she never does anything, so…"

"Except last time when she entered a crypt without permission when I had my back turned!" Vi reply dryly.

"But it was daylight and we were all there, and you were there…" the young French girl tried. "She never did anything as dumb as going alone somewhere dangerous at night…"

"Until this day," Vi said severely. "Really, Camille, I thought you were more responsible than that, I…"

"Listen Vi," Faith interrupted. "You're furious, I get it. But you'll settle your scores with your girls later. I'm more interested about where your clown may have gone. Camille," she added, turning to the girl. "Make me a list of all the things she was talking about most often and recently, everything that sounds the most obvious for her."

For a brief moment, the girl looked a little impressed that Faith spoke to her directly, but she got a grip on herself quickly and nodded frantically:

"I'll grab a pen and a piece of paper to note this down," she said and she rushed to her room on the other side of the corridor.

"Then, I'll need a map to see where all these places are and choose where to go and where to go first."

"On it," Vi said, and without waiting for a reaction from Faith, she turned on her heels and left toward the stairs.

Camille came back a moment later with a notepad and a pen and came near Faith where she started to scribbled down while showing her notes to the dark-haired Slayer.

"There's a cemetery on Harringthon's," she began. "Hope went on and on about it, she said she would go there like a hundred times. There's another one, closer, just a street away. Hope talked about it a few times, but it's way smaller than Harringthon, she would get bored real quick. Then, her newest thing is this swamp north of the town, about fifteen miles away. She took a book in the library where she read that this swamp was supposedly haunted by demons. She already told us the same kind of story about an abandoned manor we had spotted during a walk in the countryside. According to her, zombies lived there."

"Can I find that book somewhere?" Faith asked.

"I don't think so," Shirley – Hope's roommate – shyly replied. "She took it with her."

Vi appeared then at the top of the stairs, holding a map and jogged toward them.

"You have everything you need?" she asked when she spotted the notepad in Camille's hands.

As Faith nodded, she resumed:

"Going down to the office to study the map?"

"Well, we can do that quickly here, can't we?" Faith suggested when she saw how eagerly the young Slayers were looking at her.

"If you want…" Vi sighed, slightly pouting.

Faith took the map from the redhead's hands and spread it directly on the floor.

"So, where's this Harringthon's avenue?"

"It's there," said Vi and Camille at the same time, showing a point on the map.

Vi glared at her protégé, and the French girl slightly stepped back, making more room for Vi.

"We're here," she said, pointing another place on the map. "Harringthon is here, the other cemetery there"

Faith crossed the shown places on the map, then turned to Camille:

"What about the swamp? Where can I find it?"

Camille's finger came back to the map and traced a line from the center toward the north.

"There," she said. "And the abandoned manor is here," she added, showing another point, east of the center this time.

"Okay," Faith commented as she watched the different crosses on the map. "That thing in the swamp, it can only be found at night?"

"I think so," Camille answered on a dubious tone. "If it only exists."

Faith tore the page of the notepad before handing it back to the younger Slayer, then she picked up the map from the floor not even bothering to fold it back.

"Okay, I'm ready," she said, adressing Vi. "Thanks for your help, girls," she added for the teenagers.

The redhead nodded and gestured for Faith to follow, but before leaving, she turned back to Camille and her friends again:

"We'll talk about all this when Faith finds Hope. In your rooms now."

Then, without waiting to see if she was obeyed, she followed Faith who was already taking the stairs.

"Do you think you will be able to find Hope with this?" she asked.

Faith shrugged.

"Can't really say," she answered. "But there're some good leads"

Then she added, obviously amused:

"Looks like that kid is some troublemaker."

Vi gave her a telling grimace.

"If I wasn't watching her every single day, I would already have sent her back dead to her parents." she answered in a somber tone.

"I thought you never brought them see vampires?"

"I'm supposed to make sure they never go alone."

"I have to admit I don't see what you're afraid of." Faith remarked. "After all, she's a Slayer. Even if she's young, if she meets a vampire, she'll kick his ass and that's it."

"There's no guarantee, Faith," Vi replied in a somewhat dry tone. "I'm responsible of her safety. The Council haven't lost a single underage girl since Willow performed the spell. I really don't want it to start here."

"Relax," Faith said casually. "I'll bring her back."

They finally arrived in front of the mansion's main door, and stopped once Faith had opened the door.

"Thanks for your help," Vi said. "And good luck."

* * *

Hope Furlong was not very tall considering her age, neither particularly muscular or athletic. Despite all her efforts while training, she remained far too thin for her liking. Hope wished she got Camille's – who was tall and slender - stature, and whose look alone imposed respect. Vi might keep telling her that Buffy Summers, the infamous Slayer who had known the longest activity period in all history – had nothing to do with Rambo and that it did not prevent her to become the greatest Slayer of all times, Hope could not help having a complex about her thin and small frame.

And on that night more than ever before, Hope wished she was only a few centimeters taller and a few pounds heavier. Stuck up to half her calves in muddy and stinking water, surrounded by the dancing shadows of the swamp around her, regularly surprised by unusual sounds whose origin she could not make out, Hope kept telling herself she would feel better if she was a little more athletic. With her right fist tightly clenched around a stake, a dagger hanging at her belt, her left hand gripping the shoulder strap of her backpack, her heart pounding wildly in her chest, she moved forward slowly, frantically looking around her, as if expecting something to jump at her any moment.

"Come on, I can do this…" she whispered to herself, trying to find some comfort in the sound of her own voice. "I can do this." She repeated slowly, trying to sound more confident than previously. "I can do this…"

She stepped carefully to her left and was happy when she felt that the level of water was lower there and that the ground felt firmer under her feet. Satisfied, she hurried to join firmer ground, and in her haste, she did not take the time to test every step she took and one of her foot ripped over a root. She stumbled and fell heavily on her stomach in the stinking mud of the swamp. She remained perfectly still a few seconds, bitter with this new development, and she felt tears of rage mounting to her eyes.

"Fuck!" she yelled, hitting the nearest firm ground with both her fists clenched.

She got onto all fours in the water and groped around her for the stake she had lost in her fall. Time felt quite long until she finally gripped the wooden weapon with her trembling hand. Once the stake back in her fist, she stood slowly and felt her limbs to check if she was injured. Satisfied with the result, she sighed with relief. Then she turned to look around her, as if a newcomer might have taken advantage of her inattention to suddenly appear beside her.

Which was indeed the case.

Hope's heart nearly stopped in her chest when she spotted an athletic figure standing in the shadows only a few feet away from where she was standing.

"Hey," a voice said, and the young girl jumped briskly at the unexpected sound.

She wanted to retreat quickly to get away and stepped back clumsily while keeping the newcomer in her field of vision. The result of her clumsy retreat was immediate: the young Slayer tripped over a root once more and fell flat in the swamp again, on her back this time. She tried to stand up hastily and while she was trying to find something firm to grip to help her stand, an outstretched hand appeared in front of her. The young girl hesitated, but the voice resumed, far closer than previously:

"I'm gonna help you"

The voice was female, and without really knowing why, Hope complied and took the given hand, not without keeping her grip tight on her stake. The person in front of her helped her to her feet and got her closer to herself, on firmer ground.

"You're Hope, aren't you?" the other asked.

Hope opened her eyes wide to try to make out the features of the person in front of her. It was a young woman, taller than she was, with wavy dark hair, obviously strong and she looked quite intimidating, Hope decided. And if Hope was to believe the warmth of her hand, the woman was apparently human.

"And you? Who are you?" Hope growled, not trying to conceal her hostility in the slightest.

"I'm Faith. Vi's sent me," the brunette introduced herself. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," the young girl answered dryly while putting her backpack in place on her shoulders. "Why has Vi sent you?"

"She's worried about you," Faith explained in a neutral tone. "And as she has to watch after your friends, she asked me to go and fetch you."

"Are you a Slayer too?"

"What do you think?"

"Probably," the teenager grumbled. "What else Vi would have found?"

"Good point," Faith answered with a smirk.

"How have you found me?" the young Slayer asked again.

"Let's say you bragged a lot about your little expedition and we can't really say you're being discreet in this swamp." Faith replied and crossed her arms over her chest.

Hope pouted. Obviously, this answer did not sit well with her.

"You're going to take me back to the center, aren't you"? She asked in a lower tone, defeated.

"It's not like I have a choice," Faith answered. "That place's not exactly fun and I'm not a baby-sitter"

Hope scowled even more at this, but she did not make a move.

"How long have you been a Slayer?" she asked instead.

"Quite some time," Faith replied placidly.

"So, it would be useless to run to try to shake you off?"

"Indeed. It's a good thing you're asking; it will spare us both useless efforts." The brunette asked with a faint smile, more and more amused at how the conversation was going.

The kid looked her up and down, probably appraising how she would be able to put that remark to the test.

"Come on, get out of here," Faith said, gesturing for her to come closer.

Hope hesitated one more moment, then made up her mind. She took a step forward to join Faith, but when she was about to put her foot in front of her, she suddenly felt something pulling her backwards and she stumbled. She felt herself dragged backwards and desperately looked for something to grab while her body slid in the mud and got her away from the dark-haired Slayer.

"Help!" she yelled when she realized that something was holding her ankle and trying to drag her in the deep of her swamp without being able to free herself.

"Hope!" Faith exclaimed when she understood what was happening. "Don't worry, I'm coming!"

The once rogue Slayer darted in the swamp and quickly found herself with mid up to her calves. She picked her dagger at her belt and held out her hand to try to grab Hope's fingers, desperately outstretched toward her. She looked terrified and it had only took a second for Faith to understand that it was not some plan to try to escape her, but that there REALLY was something in that swamp.

"Faith! Help-me!" the young girl yelled again. "Help-m…"

Her last words got lost as she disappeared under the mud, probably pulled toward the end of the swamp. Faith rushed where the girl had vanished and plunged her hands frantically in the muddy water to search for Hope's body.

"Hope! Hope!" she yelped. "Where are you?"

Faith rushed around her, felt the ground under her feet, with her hands, as quickly as she could, worry mounting quickly with each passing second. Suddenly, Hope's face emerged from the water and Faith saw her rushing to breathe in. The dark-haired Slayer rushed to her to try and grab her but before she got her, Hope disappeared again.

"Hope!" she cried again in frustration.

She stopped then every movement, to be able to feel Hope's moves under the muddy water. She felt moving and struggling on her right and quickly stepped in that direction. Without thinking, she plunged her two hands in the mud and after a moment groping around, she felt a limb. Faith grabbed it and pulled at full force toward herself. Hope finally appeared, and once her head out of the water, she breathed out and spat mud from mouth and nose. Faith felt then that Hope was again pulled towards the end of the water and she had to arch her legs and arms to keep Hope at the surface.

"What is it Hope?" she asked quickly, putting much effort at trying to release the girl.

"Dunno!" the young Slayer answered. "I…"

Her face disappeared again under water for a brief moment and Faith heaved her up once more.

"There's something holding my ankle," Hope spat as she tried to keep herself above water. "I… I think it's alive!"

"I'm going to get you out of there, don't worry," Faith tried to reassure her while she stepped around the girl to try to get closer to her predator.

She raised her dagger above where the young Slayer's ankle was supposed to be located, and said-Slayer's eyes opened wide at the sight?

"What the fuck are you doing?" she shrieked.

"Getting you out of here," Faith replied between clenched teeth, at the same time focused on her target and on keeping the girl above water.

"There's my leg the..." Hope exclaimed but her words died in her throat when Faith slammed her dagger in the water despite her protests.

The brunette felt her blade touching something and she cast a worried glance toward the younger girl to make sure she just had not cut through her calf. When she saw she was not grimacing more than before, Faith felt relieved and plunged her dagger once more.

"Got it?" she asked and she tried to get Hope up another time.

"No," the young girl replied and as a confirmation, her head sank again and Faith had to make another effort to keep her hold on her and help her to get her face back above the surface. The dark-haired Slayer then repeated her efforts and struck several times around Hope's trapped ankle. Suddenly, she felt Hope clinging to her to try to stand, finally free. Faith helped her to her feet and slapped her slightly on her back as Hope spat mud.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked, while remaining attentive to her surroundings.

Hope was shaking all over and she needed a dozen seconds before she could make a sound.

"Yeah," she simply said and nodded vaguely. "I think I'm fine"

She coughed again and when she finally noticed that Faith was still on alert, she asked:

"What was it?"

"How would I know?" Faith grumbled. "You were the one that thing kept under water! What did you feel? Was it a plant? Something alive?"

Hope shrugged, looking sorry.

"Dunno. All I can say is whatever it was, it was holding my leg tight..."

"Great..." Faith mumbled. "That'll help..."

Though her voice was barely above a whisper, Hope heard and scowled once more.

"I'm so..." she started in a sincerely regretful tone, but she closed her mouth when Faith violently grabbed her arm to pull her behind her.

Hope turned around to look at what Faith was seeing and her eyes opened wide with terror when she saw a dirty monster with several tentacles – one of which was partially cut – and several pair of eyes, emerging from the muddy water.

"Take a look at what was just about to eat you before I saved your ass," Faith commented with a disgusted grimace.

"Which makes you my new best friend I'd say," Hope replied in the same tone.

"Stay behind me," Faith ordered, as the newcomer was moving slowly toward them. "That thing does not look friendly"

"I'm a Slayer too," Hope protested. "There's no reason why I should hide behind your back"

"You'll be Slayer when you graduate from Vi's school," Faith replied. "Right now, you stay behind me."

"Yeah, right..." the young girl grumbled, but she nevertheless complied.

She did not remain behind Faith for long though: as the monster suddenly threw one of this tentacles toward them, the brunette Slayer grabbed Hope's jacket and plunged her with her in order to dodge the strike. The moment after, Faith released the young Slayer and lashed forward to grab the beast's tentacle with both hands. She succeeded, but not without effort, and wedged the limb under her shoulder while she tried to get her knife she had put back at her belt. I was not an easy task, shaken as she was by her enemy's attempted kicks.

"Go away Hope!" Faith yelled while she struck the tentacles that came close to her.

The young girl stood up, but instead of obeying, she stayed standing stll there, watching the scene, obviously weighting her next move. After a moment of thinking, she put her trembling hands to her belt and clumsily took her own dagger out.

"Go away Hope!" Faith insisted when she saw what she was doing. "I don't have any..."

A tentacle's strike in full chest interrupted her, but she went on as soon as she could breathe again.

"... problem..."

And in order to prove herself, Faith pulled the tentacle she was still holding at full force, trying to get closer to the demon's body and to plunge her knife as deep as she could. The reaction came quickly: the monster shrieked loudly and its tentacles moved more violently than before, kicking all around them. This time, Faith could not keep her hold on the monster and was forced to release her prey as she was hit violently in the chest and ended up lying in the muddy water a few feet away from the beast. She looked up immediately upon hearing a small cry : Hope had just been thrown backward by a tentacle as well. Faith made sure she was able to stood up before reporting her attention back to the monster. She stood and lashed forward, and her strike was far more violent than previously this time. She even nearly cut one of the tentacle completely.

"One down!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

That small victory earned her all the monster's attention back. It turned away from Hope to devote itself to her. While she was looking for an angle of attack, Faith felt something grabbing her ankles and pulling her toward the demon. She tried to resist but she fell back and found herself in the dirty water, swept along toward the bulging eyes which were all staring intensely at her. Faith tried to kick to free herself, but with no luck. She closed her fingers more tightly around her dagger's handle that she was still holding with her right hand, and she kept it hidden under water. She then heard the sound of footsteps in the water behind her and she saw the monster's eyes switching direction. Faith turned slightly and saw Hope rushing to her help.

"Hope, stay where you are, I d..." Faith started.

But she fell silent and her eyes opened wide in front of a scene that even in her position, she found surreal: Hope had raised her knife above her head, getting ready to strike the beast who was still a few feet away from her. But suddenly et unexpectedly, Hope was stopped dead in her tracks, held back by a hanging branch which got caught her backpack's shoulder strap. The young girl found herself almost hanging at the tree, struggling without knowing what was holding her. If her situation was not far less funny overall, Faith would probably find the scene hilarious. She was even close to burst into laughing seeing the young Slayer hanging at her branch like a ragdoll. But a brutal pull of the tentacles on her ankle brought her back to reality and her smile died on her lips. Faith got her weapon ready again, and once within reach, she rained strikes in every demon's eye. Terrible shrieks pierced the night air and Faith's eardrums but she did not stop anyway, as the pressure on her ankles tightened again. She felt herself swept along toward the bottom of the swamp, which was just deep enough where she was, for her to be able to keep her head above water using her free arm to support herself. As the monster tried to plunge her under the dirty water, Faith's weapon-holding arm described a large circle in the air before she drove the blade into the demon's flabby flesh. The reaction was immediate: the tentacles holding her left ankle released her completely and those holding the right loosened enough to allow the dark-haired Slayer to free herself. She jumped to her feet, dodged a tentacle moving aimlessly around her and took a second to think about her next move. She cast a glance to the beast and noticed how spasmodic its breathing was. It was enough to decide her about what to do: Faith took the steps needed to close the distance and surrounded what appeared to be the monster's neck with her two arms. Then she smothered it as strongly as she could, ignoring Hope's small cry when she saw her doing so. Faith thought it lasted a eternity, but finally the demon stopped moving and the Slayer released her prey who glided slowly into the swamp. The brunette watched the corpse a moment before turning around and walking over to Hope who was still hanging at the tree. Faith could not completely remove her smirk when she freed her.

"Don't say anything," the young girl said, only able to notice the older Slayer's mocking look.

"Didn't make a sound," Faith protested, but her tone spoke volumes.

Hope put the bag correctly on her shoulder and tried to stand right in front of Faith, as if to display what little dignity left she had. Faith snickered slightly and waited for Hope to protest once more, but instead, the young girl pointed at something behind the brunette.

"Look at this," she said.

Faith turned around and saw bubbles forming around the monster's body. They grew bigger until they flooded the corpse, and to both Slayers' surprise, it disappeared slowly, as if dragged toward the end of the swamp.

"We'd better not stay here longer," Faith commented as she pushed Hope toward firmer ground.

The young girl complied and followed Faith close when the elder Slayer headed where she had come from.

"What now?" the girl asked.

"I'm bringing you back," Faith answered matter-of-factly. "Swamps do not suit you"

Then, she added, looking her up from head to toes:

"Look at you," she added. "You're dripping with mud and you're awfully stinking!"

"Look who's talking," Hope remarked, gesturing to Faith. "I'm not the one who gave a hug to that disguting thing"

Faith stopped and looked down at her sweater covered in mud and filth she could not really recognize.

"And now I'm dreaming of a shower."

She resumed her walk, quickly this time.

"You're downright crazy," Hope commented a moment later, as Faith remained silent. "Strangling that thing, you didn't find anything simpler?"

"It felt the right thing to do at the time," Faith answered simply.

Hope did not reply and they walked in silence several minutes before finally reaching Faith's car. The dark-haired Slayer gestured for the young girl to settle while she went to the driver door.

"You coming?" Faith enjoined her when she saw her staying still by the door.

"Faith..." the girl started in an embarrassed tone, looking down.

"Yeah?"

"You won't tell anyone about the whole bag thing, will you?" she managed to say quickly, looking up briefly to see the look on the older Slayer's face.

Faith just smiled enigmatically and did not answer.

"Just come," she said simply.

Hope sighed and obeyed.


	4. Act 3

"Wicked!" Hope repeated for what appeared the thousandth time to Faith. "So, you are THE Faith?"

"I think I already told you that about a hundred times," the dark-haired Slayer said, rolling her eyes, but a slight smile tugging at her lips.

"Not that many," Hope protested. "Hardly three or four times. Five at most." She added when Faith gave her a skeptical glance. "I didn't get it at first" the young girl resumed.

"Got that much," Faith commented.

"That's natural," Hope resumed as if Faith had not spoken. "How did you want me to have time to think about something like that in the middle of a swamp haunted by an ugly monster with three pairs of eyes?"

"Only three?" Faith asked without thinking. "And I remind you that this thing wasn't even there when I introduced myself"

"I felt it was about to come," Hope replied seriously.

"Yeah, right," Faith smirked.

"Could you shut the window? It's freezing in here."

"We're stinking too," Faith remarked. "That swamp's mud is foul"

She nevertheless closed the window on her side when she saw the girl trembling with cold. A silence followed and Hope sank into her seat as she wrapped her arms around herself to get some warmth. After a moment, she mumbled under her breath:

"Vi is going to kill me again…"

Faith remained silent at first, but seeing the girl casting a glance at her, she finally asked:

"What does Vi have against you? Despite the obvious fact that you disappear in the middle of the night I mean."

Hope sat up slightly and answered, though not turning fully to Faith:

"I think she finds me a little too enthusiastic about the Slayer gig…" she said in a somewhat evasive tone.

The dark-haired Slayer glanced at her and sighed slightly.

"I see…" she breathed.

"Vi keeps telling me it's a dangerous mission; that it's not fun, that you can die and yada yada…" Hope went on, rolling her eyes as she obviously did not hear Faith.

Faith tried to suppress a smirk without completely succeeding, but Hope was not even looking at her.

"As if I didn't already know that," Hope resumed without waiting for a reaction from Faith. "But that's what makes the thing great, isn't it? If there wasn't any risk, it wouldn't have been a sacred mission for generations."

She stopped for a brief moment to catch her breath before going on:

"And how do you want us to be ready for when you're sent to Cleveland if we never go and fight real monsters? The Slayer's handbook's illustrations may be very accurate but they won't hurt us."

Again, Faith suppressed a small smile, and for a brief moment, Sarah Marple desperately trying to get her to read said handbook, flashed before her eyes. The brunette banished the memory from her mind as soon as it had come and focused back on Hope who concluded:

"I want to fight monsters, real monsters."

"I kinda got the idea." Faith said, amused.

Then, she replied more seriously:

"But you know, I'm sure Vi is acting for your own benefit."

Hope rolled her eyes, and Faith bit her tongue for saying such a commonplace. After all, she used to be fifteen too, even if she tried to forget about it.

"What I mean," she resumed carefully, searching for the right words. "Is Vi must keep you all alive; you'll be more useful alive in Cleveland in two or three years than dead by…"

"Two or three years!" Hope exclaimed, interrupting the brunette. "You want me to stay there for two or three more years?"

"I dunno," Faith replied. "I don't really know what's planned, but believe me, the better you're trained here, the better it will be for you and the others when you turn up on the field."

"Don't you like being on the field?" the girl asked. "You have such a wonderful life!" she added without waiting for an answer. "You're alone, you do whatever you want whenever you want with nobody to tell you what to do and when to do it! You fight monsters the way that fits you!"

Faith's face hardened despite Hope's enthusiastic description of her life. She wavered a second before she replied:

"You know, it's not as wonderful as it sounds… I mean, fighting monster might help to get some steam off or help you to feel useful and all that, but believe me, you can soon go off the rails by dint of taking yourself for a superhero."

She had said the last part in an elusive tone, trying to conceal her embarrassment. To her surprise, Hope apparently perfectly followed her train of thought.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she said in an obvious tone. "I know what you're talking about y'know, I know your story, I read the passage about you"

Faith frowned and turned to the girl, surprised.

"You what? Read about me ? What do you mean you read about me?"

"Of course," Hope answered good-naturally. "The two-page spread about you in the Slayer handbook"

"What?" Faith exclaimed in a rather cutting tone, as she felt shared between disbelief, anger and a hint of pride.

"The double page spread about you in the …" Hope started again.

"I heard that part," Faith interrupted. "What's the hell? A page spread about me in the Slayer handbook!"

"A double page spread," Hope clarified, as if it was of great importance. "I think you're the only one to get so much place only for yourself in the book, except for Buffy Summers of course, there's a whole chapter about her and…"

"Can't say it's a surprise…" Faith grumbled, too low for Hope to hear and without listening to Hope's short summary of the blonde Slayer's adventures. Faith nevertheless noticed that stabbing her in the gut on the roof of her apartment was apparently not on the list.

"I'll show you the book when we arrive," Hope suggested enthusiastically, as if it was perfectly obvious that Faith was dying to read said-chapter or the pages about her.

She did not dissuade her anyway, leaving her to talk alone and ramble about how Faith's solitary life had become her vision of the perfect life she wanted to live later. As she caught Kennedy's name in her young counterpart's flood of words, she wondered what other subjects this new handbook could be about. It probably referred to Willow and the Slayer spell, and Faith wondered briefly if Tara was mentioned. It was clearly nonsense, since there was strictly no good reason Faith could think of that would justify it. But the thought occurred to her nonetheless and before she could stop herself, she wondered where the blonde might be and what she might be doing. A mixed feeling of anger and guilt shook her then, but it disappeared as soon as it had appeared as Faith pushed the thought away. She tried to focus again on Hope who was now rambling about the fact that using real weapon during training was forbidden and was complaining about the lack of practice with crossbows. How Hope had gone from the story of Buffy, Kennedy and the others to Vi's imposed restrictions of using weapon in the gym and the shooting practice timetable, the brunette had no idea.

"Don't you agree?" Hope asked suddenly and turned to her.

Faith jumped slightly and tried to remember her question. She did not need to, though, as Hope resumed for her:

"Of course I'm right, that's quite obvious. I really don't see what sense Vi makes of this. Yet, she's clever and all and…"

Faith tuned out again and for a second, she wondered if the reason why Vi wanted to send the girl back home was not simply because she was such a chatterbox. Hope looked undoubtedly nice but probably proved to be quite exhausting after some time. The brunette was probably too much used to her silent relationship with Tara to understand how anyone could talk so much and even less manage to follow the girl's unconnected train of thoughts. Again, she cleared any thought of the blonde from her mind as quickly as possible, and sighed with relief when she caught sight of a road sign.

"Almost there," she said flatly. "We'll be there in less than half an hour."

As she expected, the news did not please Hope too much and she sank in her seat with a defeated look on her face, and fell silent – at last- for the rest of the trip.

* * *

"You sure you don't want me to spar a little with them?" Faith asked as she sank deeply in the armchair Vi had offered her a moment before and spreading her legs on the bench in front of her.

Both young women were in the wide gym of the center, slightly apart from the younger Slayers who were training for the last time of the day. Faith had flopped into a wide rattan armchair covered with an old worn cushion whose sides had been probably frayed by the many cats living in the mansion, and had her legs extended on a wooden bench where Vi may have sat, had it been free. But the redhead remained standing, slightly ahead of her counterpart's armchair, her eyes fixed on the young girls at training. She nevertheless gave an annoyed look at the brunette for being so rude but did not comment.

"No," the redhead answered. "It would only distract them, and they had enough distraction for today."

"You're taking yourself very seriously," Faith remarked casually.

"Too seriously for your taste?" Vi asked, the tone of her voice betraying the annoyance she was trying to conceal.

Faith shrugged and hesitated to go on with this, feeling it was potentially dangerous ground.

"They're just kids," she finally said. "They can't have too many distractions."

"You'll tell that to their parents when they're killed because they were too distracted to pay attention during training." Vi replied sharply.

Faith rolled her eyes as Vi had her back to her.

"They're safe here," she remarked. "There're not even enough cars to be ran over while crossing the street."

"Yeah," Vi grumbled without turning to her. "I remind you that you just came back from a haunted swamp with one of them."

"I thought she was quite the character here?" Faith asked. "The others are calmer, aren't they?"

"I don't want to lose not even one of them"

"She's restless, send her to captain Kennedy, she's going to calm her down."

Vi gave a bitter laugh.

"Of course not," she snorted. "She would get killed on her first step outside."

"Aren't you overreacting? Young or not, she's still a Slayer after all."

Vi shrugged wearily.

"Not every Slayer is as good as the next," she said in a regretful tone.

"I know…" Faith mumbled in a low voice as she looked down. Then, she asked a little louder: "She often happens to flee like that?"

"It was the first time."

"A particular reason?"

Vi did not answer and took a few steps to call out two girls in the back of the gym.

"Marianna, Lucy, more energy please!"

Then, she came back toward Faith and talked to her as if they had not been interrupted:

"I told her it would be better for her to give up and go home like two newcomers who left last week"

Faith arched an eyebrow at this:

"Why? Unmanageable?"

"You can say that," Vi answered and turned again to glance at the girls. "She's not good at being a Slayer, that's the problem with her." She explained, coming back toward Faith. "If she had been called when there was only one Slayer, she'd had ended up dead before the end of her first day. That's why I advised her to give up and come back to her family. Since then, she decided she would become a Slayer alone."

Faith was now gaping at her.

"Wait a sec," she said, straightening up slightly. "You're telling me that Giles asked me to come here to run after an awkward Slayer? When you said she was peculiar, that's what you meant?"

Vi grimaced at the word 'awkward' but nodded slightly.

"You can say that," she admitted in a sigh.

"And there I thought she was a young hooligan whom I was supposed to lecture as the reformed bad Slayer I am…" the brunette grumbled with a look both upset and offended. "So, you want to fire the girl because you think she's not good enough?" she resumed after a brief pause, in a clearly disapproving tone.

Vi perceived the underlying reproach and glared at Faith before explaining in a dry tone:

"That would be far better for her and the others. She's a danger to herself and the group."

"What do you have against her? You find her to be too motivated and impatient?"

"You've seen her, haven't you?" Vi replied. "She's reckless and clumsy."

"Okay, I admit that the girl won't be the next B, but she's willing to do that shitty job, isn't it what's important?"

"Have you forgotten rule number one? Don't die. We're a team now, and I need girls who can play in a team."

"Yeah, you're just trying to get rid of her because she's more difficult to manage than some others."

This time, Vi turned frankly to Faith and she crossed her arms over her chest, towering above the brunette still flopped into her armchair, her eyes narrowed and her face set in a rather angry expression.

"How easy for you to say so and to go all moralizing," the redhead growled dryly. "You decided to do whatever you want without bothering about anyone but you. Someone has to take care of these kids instead of leaving them on their own. My job consists in keeping them alive despite the responsibilities and powers that weight on their shoulders now and believe me, that's a _very_ time-consuming task. So please miss I've-seen-it-all, just keep your hasty comments for yourself, some of us are trying to act for other people's benefit here"

Faith remained dumbfounded for a moment. Not that anyone had ever lectured the brunette. She was quite used to it in fact. But she had never heard Vi talking so dryly to anyone before, let alone herself. After witnessing her prowess on a battlefield, Faith should have known that Vi was more than the shy awkward girl she had once been, but she could not help being stunned by the younger Slayer's unusual dry and authoritative tone.

"Easy, Red," she finally said. "All I'm saying is if that girl wants to be a Slayer at all costs, she should be given a chance." Then she added with a stubborn look on her face: "And I still say that you could have gone after her yourself."

"I already told you why I didn't," Vi replied, annoyed. "I can't leave the center for hours! Most of the older girls have been called to Cleveland and I'm overworked. I can't leave thirty kids alone to run after another one."

She fell silent for a second, appeared to hesitate and finally added in a calmer tone:

"But you're right about one thing. Asking you to go after her, when you make clear you want to remain alone at all costs, wasn't exactly the best idea, since I keep telling them that we're a team and we have to work together."

Faith flinched slightly at the comment, but she did not reply. Seeing that she remained silent, Vi turned back to her girls after a moment and they stayed several minutes just watching Hope sparring with Camille without exchanging a word. Finally, Vi took a few steps forward and pulled the cord of a bell hanging near the entrance of the room that Faith had not noticed until then. At the sound of the bell, all girls stopped and turned to her.

"It's over for tonight," Vi said sharply. "Everyone to the dorms, take a shower and go to bed. Natalie, Camille, you're leading the way. And I don't want any mess. I'm coming for inspection in half an hour."

A light hubbub welcomed that declaration as the group of girls headed for the door, guided by the two older girls. Vi watched them until the last girl had exited the room and the sound of their voices had vanished into the distance. Finally, she came back toward Faith and flopped onto the bench where Faith had her feet, forcing the brunette to remove them hastily to avoid Vi to sit on them. The brunette expected Vi to carry on with where they had left their previous conversation or to make a comment about the training or the mess she supposed thirty teenage girls living in the same place could make. But the redhead remained silent, apparently keeping these thoughts to herself, and Faith finally felt she had to break the silence.

"I thought you were in Brazil with Rona, Kennedy and Willow," she said.

Vi looked up and nonchalantly shrugged.

"I came back when things slowed down there." She explained. "And when Rona gave up, since Kennedy had to stay for a little longer in Rio, I chose to take a center to lead rather than end up alone in Cleveland…"

"What?" Faith interrupted, surprise obvious in her voice. "Rona gave up?"

Vi gave her a sidelong glance, her eyes gleaming with a mix of weariness, sadness and some contempt.

"You haven't heard?" she asked sharply, in a tone which clearly told she found that fact perfectly intolerable.

Faith shrugged.

"As you already know, I don't work for the Council anymore; I may have missed the last news…" Seeing Vi arching an eyebrow and on the verge of reacting, the dark-haired Slayer resumed quickly:

"What happened? Last time I saw her, she looked fine."

This time, Vi was the one to shrug as she answered in a low voice:

"We lost Shannon in Brazil," she explained, and Faith tried to hold a look of surprise back without really succeeding, but Vi did not really look at her anymore. "It was a real blow."

"I guess…" Faith whispered thoughtfully.

The brunette hardly knew Shannon. She vaguely remembered the teenage girl whom she and Willow had found on the roadside after Caleb had stabbed her and thrown her off his van. The only thing she knew was that the girl had been part of Kennedy's squad in Brazil and that the younger Slayer had always spoken very highly of her. From what she had gathered, the two were friends. Kennedy, of course, probably had a hard time over that too. She wanted to ask, but refrained herself. She perfectly knew what Vi would answer. Seeing the melancholy look on the redhead's face, she preferred changing the subject.

"So, you came back from Brazil," she resumed casually. "How was the mission? Have Willow and Kenn finally controlled the situation?"

"They have," Vi answered, apparently grateful for talking about something else. "It's already been quite some time."

Seeing Faith's surprised expression, she clarified:

"Kenn is going to come back from Brazil soon too, Giles called her back to Cleveland."

"I thought she was supposed to take the lead of the European branch once the Brazil mission was finished?"

Vi shook her head.

"There was a change in plans. Buffy and Will took charge in Europe."

This time, Faith sat up straight.

"B is back to work?"

The redhead stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Don't tell me you weren't aware of that too?"

Faith did not answer but her expression changed to an obviously 'do I look like as I know?'. Vi sighed and carried on:

"It's rather new. Two or three months ago at best."

"And Willow chose to go to Europe with B rather than going to Cleveland with Kennedy?"

It was more an affirmation, spoken in an accusing and disdainful tone, than a real question.

"Another thing you don't know it seems," said Vi, her tone accusing too. "They broke up"

"What?"

"I thought you two were friends?" the redhead replied. "You should call her from time to time."

Faith did not answer and apparently pondered what she had just learned.

"If I understand correctly, they broke up and Will took off to Europe and left the Cleveland's mess to Kenn?"

Vi grimaced at Faith's obvious ignorance of her remark, but she did not insist.

"That's what Kenn wanted." She countered, rolling her eyes.

"What happened with Red?" Faith asked after a silence. "It's new?"

"Not really," Vi explained. "A few months back. To be fair, it did not last long after they came back from the last annual meeting of the Council in Cleveland."

Faith hesitated to ask more, having a good idea of what might have soiled the young women's relationship. She did not need to anyway, since Vi resumed almost immediately:

"They had a little problem of former dead girlfriend resurrected." She said, staring intently at Faith. "Which gets me thinking…" she added, her eyes set even more firmly on the brunette. "That said former resurrected girlfriend was supposed to be with you, wasn't she? What have you done to her?"

"The plan was me playing baby-sitter until she was able to watch after herself." Faith grumbled with an annoyed grimace. "She's ended up leaving the nest."

Vi stared at her for a moment in silence, probably wondering if Faith was about to talk further about the matter, but the dark-haired Slayer looked away and obviously decided that she would not give any more detail.

"So, Kenn will take care of Cleveland?" she finally asked, in order to divert Vi's attention.

"Someone has to, don't you think?" the redhead replied. "Cleveland doesn't miss action. If Kenn and her squad are not enough to get things back to normal, Giles may call the European squad for help. And if they're also not enough, we'll close the school here and I'll go too."

Faith's eyes widened in surprise.

"It's that bad?"

"Three seriously injured last month," Vi said between clenched teeth. "It never happened before. The Council is worried."

"Not surprising…" Faith whispered thoughtfully. "Last time I was there, the squads seemed to control the situation…"

She paused, and then added in a small voice:

"Why hasn't Giles called me?"

Vi glanced at her and scoffed.

"As you reminded me earlier, I think you do not work for the Council anymore? I heard you resigned after you were given a little well-deserved reprimand?"

The brunette smiled sarcastically at the comment.

"It wasn't a _little_ reprimand and I did not…"

The sound of hurried footsteps and a young girl storming in the room interrupted her. A gleam of relief passed in the newcomer's eyes when she saw they were both still here, and she needed to catch her breath before being able to answer Vi's impatient 'what's going on?' question.

"Vi," she said between two labored breathing as she supported herself against the wall beside her. "We're under attack"


	5. Act 4

"Vi, we're under attack!"

Panting, her forehead covered in sweat, one of the young Slayers of the center had just stormed at the door of the gym and was looking frantically at Faith and Vi, but relieved to find them both still here.

Both women had instinctively turned to the door upon hearing the sound of running footsteps coming closer, and jumped on their feet at the young girl's announcement.

"We're under attack!" she repeated quickly as both older Slayers hurried toward her.

"Are you hurt?" Vi asked at first, watching the girl closely from head to toes, looking for a possible injury.

She shook her head briefly and now relieved, Vi asked quickly:

"What do you mean under attack?"

"Attacked by what?" Faith clarified with a hint of impatience in her voice.

"I'm not sure," the young girl answered in an apologetic tone. "Zombies of sorts."

"Where are they?" Vi demanded. "Have they come in?"

"They arrived through East door, on the dorms side," the Slayer answered. "Camille is trying to contain them downstairs, in the dining hall to prevent them to spread into the whole school and she sent me to warn you."

"Good job," Vi approved with nod.

"Enough talk," Faith growled. "Let's go"

"We need to go first to the armory," Vi replied as they darted. "The girls don't have any weapon with them."

Faith grimaced: she clearly found odd that Slayers were walking around without weapon, but she followed Vi without commenting. The three girls ran at full speed along a corridor after the gym up to stairs behind a double-door which Vi kicked opened without slowing down at all. They raced up the stairs and arrived in another corridor. Vi turned right and entered a room after hastily unlocking the door with a bunch of keys she found in a pocket of her beige military pants. The room was not wide: it must have been used as a laundry room or even as a cupboard back in the day when the mansion was still an ordinary boarding school. Every wall except for the one of the door, were covered with high and wide display cabinets up to the ceiling, All of them contained all sort of weapon. Faith followed Vi to the display cabinet at the back of the room where were exposed dozens of knives, daggers and even swords of all sizes and shapes. For a moment, she remained impressed in front of such a display, but the sound of keys clinking together while Vi was looking for the one opening the cabinet, brought her back to reality.

"What the hell are you doing?" she growled.

"Looking for the right key of course," the redhead replied without looking up to her, her fingers trying to nimbly slide a new key into the lock.

Faith watched her, half-dumbfounded, half-annoyed, and when the key was officially disqualified as being the right one, she slightly shouldered Vi out of the way.

"Go away," Faith said. "I'm taking care of that."

"What?" Vi asked, frowning.

As an answer, Faith threw her right elbow right through the left part of the display cabinet and the window pane exploded before Vi's horrified eyes.

"Faith!" she shrieked.

"We can't lose time!" Faith bellowed without leaving her time to protest more. "Let's take weapons and let's go!"

Vi appeared to be on the verge of protesting, but she changed her mind and did as Faith told. The dark-haired Slayer slid as many knives and swords at her belt as she could before turning to the girl who had come to warn them.

"What about you?" she exclaimed impatiently. "What are you doing?" The girl looked at her for a moment questioningly, and Faith threw her the stake she was holding. "Come and help." She clarified.

The girl complied without hesitation and rushed to Faith who filled her arms with several weapons. The girl did as she had seen Faith doing before and slid the daggers at her belt one after the other before keeping a longer and larger one in hand. Faith and Vi, for their part, grabbed several swords in each hand before starting for the door again, the younger Slayer on their heels. They rushed down the stairs and ran along the corridor up to the other side of the building in no time. They soon heard yelling, exclamations, loud noise of fighting. When they reached the dining hall, Faith did not take a moment to assess the situation. She just jumped into the melee in the middle of overwhelmed Slayers, some terrified, some transcended. Dozens of zombies had managed to come in the building and were tearing the dining hall to pieces, overturning tables and chairs, ripping cabinets' doors off, attacking the young girls more violently than their emaciated frames would let imagine. Others were pressing up against the East door and were trying to force it open while several Slayers were doing their best to keep the door closed, while some of the comrades were protecting them from the zombies already in. In the middle of the shambles, Camille was trying to make herself heard and to lead her fellow Slayers. Hope, for her part, was among those pressed against the door trying to resist to the pressure of the zombies outside.

Faith threw as many weapon as she could to the young unarmed Slayers around her and saw that Vi was doing the sale. The brunette then joined the central melee, when most of the zombies were gathered, while her counterpart rushed to help the group by the door. After a few minutes of fighting, the arrival of two more experienced Slayers and a collection of weapons turned the tide and the number of fighting zombies started to go down.

"What are we doing for those outside?" Faith yelled to Vi, while beheading a zombie to her right with a single movement of her sword.

"Still working on that part!" Vi replied in the same way, while she ran her direct opponent through with her sword.

They did not have time, however, to gather and discuss the subject. Hope, who was pressing against one the double-door leading to the gardens to help keeping it shut, suddenly experienced a violent cramp in her left arm, and instinctively stepped back and loosened her grip for a brief moment. It was enough for the zombies who had been trying in vain to enter for the past ten minutes to finally find their way in. The side of the door that Hope had briefly left without defense, was smashed to pieces, and dozens of frail and tattered bodies came flooding in the dining hall, pushing violently on their ways, the young Slayers who were trying to prevent them from entering. Hope was swept away by the horde and fell to the ground where she was trampled on by dozens of naked and dirty feet before she could slip out of reach under a nearby table. Vi, who had her back turned to the door at the moment it gave in, hardly had time to turn around to see what was going on before several zombies hurled themselves at her. The redhead raised her left hand, which was firmly gripping a long dagger, and struck twice the closest zombie, while trying to free her sword, still plunged into the stomach of her previous victim.

"Vi!" Faith yelled when she saw the redhead in such a difficult position.

She was about to rush to her help when a high-pitch cry to her right made her turn her head. Camille was also overwhelmed by the numbers and Natalie's help did look to be enough. Faith was only a few feet away from them and she crossed the distance to help the younger girls without thinking. Using the dagger in her left hand, then the one in her right hand, she tore off the back of a zombie, beheaded another, gashed a third's chest before getting a fourth one away with a violent kick in his stomach. When she had finally cleared the group of zombies and Camille and Natalie were free, Faith just asked a quick 'You okay?' and when they nodded, she turned back to where Vi was standing a moment ago. The redhead was nowhere to be seen but a group of Slayers appeared to be desperately trying to free someone from a group of monsters. In two strides, Faith rushed to that new melee and showed all her dexterity to decimate another group of zombies in record time before the younger girls' impressed eyes. She found Vi unconscious lying on the ground near the spot where Faith had seen her standing when the monsters had thrown themselves at her. The brunette rushed to her side while the youngest girls were crying in terror at the sight. Faith checked her pulse and felt relieved when she saw the redhead was breathing. She had been violently hit on the back of her skull and blood was flowing freely from the wound. Faith ripped off a piece of Vi's sleeve and sponged the blood with it before pressing on the wound to stop the bleeding. Behind, she felt –more than actually seeing –Slayers fighting zombies who were trying to reach her. When she had done everything she could to relieve Vi's wound considering the urgency of the situation, she jumped to her feet and watched around her. A few groups of zombies were still fighting in the dining hall. Camille was trying to lead a group of Slayers against them, but they struggled to take the upper hand. Near the door which Hope had released a moment ago, several girls had gathered and were pressing back to prevent more zombies to come in. The room was in a state of indescribable confusion: the girls were running all around, calling out to each other. She glanced at Vi and secretly hoped that the redhead would stand and took back her role of leader, but it did not happen. She briefly thought of Tara, thought about her fireballs and her soothing aura. But Tara was not there. Faith was alone, and she had to manage with the situation. This realization forced her to shake herself up, and she suddenly jumped on one the few still standing tables, in order to draw the younger Slayers' attention to herself.

"Camille!" she yelled to the older girl, and time seemed to stop, everyone stopping whatever they were doing to turn to her. Faith could not help but feel uneasy at the way all the Slayers – and even their opponents – were hanging upon her every word. "Block every possible way out. I don't want anything to go out of this room, take the table, the chairs, whatever you want, but close everything!"

There was not the shadow of a question in the girl's reaction. She nodded, finished the closest zombie off, gestured to two younger Slayers beside her to help her and rushed to the back door where she started to pile chairs and pieces of ripped tables.

"Natalie!" Faith went on when she noticed she was obeyed. "Do whatever you want, but finish the remaining zombies off!"

She ended her sentence by plunging her dagger into the chest of one who was trying to knock over the table where the brunette was standing. "You three go help her!" she added, addressing three younger Slayers who were looking at her in awe.

Immediately, all moved into action, and Natalie and the three girls Faith had just chosen, redoubled their efforts to clear the dining hall from the zombies who still standing. Faith then rushed to the double door where most of the girls were joining their efforts to keep the opening shut. The brunette saw all the girls staring at her expectantly as she approached.

"How many outside?" she asked, squinting to try to make things out in the dark. She saw dark figures pressing against the window pane of the door but it was nearly impossible to know how many monsters exactly were standing there. At first sight, it could be dozens of them. Faith turned again toward Camille who had already piled up lots of broken furniture in front of the main door and started to do the same with the trademen's entrance.

"Wait!" she exclaimed to her, and Camille stopped what she was doing to look at her questioningly.

"Hang on a little longer," Faith told the girls who were blocking the double French windows.

Then, she grabbed Hope – who was still half hiding under a table – and pulled her behind her toward Camille.

"Where does this door lead?" Faith asked, trying to open but it was locked. "No zombie gets out here?"

Camille shook her head.

"No," she explained. "I asked Nat to close every door, and they didn't even try this one, they were focused on trying to reach the main door."

Saying this, she gestured to the door she had just blocked up.

"Perfect," Faith approved, as she pulled forcefully on the handle of the narrow door in front of her, before turning to Hope. "Listen, I want you to go upstairs and look out the window how many they are and tell me. Then go and fetch the other Slayers, get them out of bed, took the crossbows and shoot them from the windows upstairs. Is this ok?"

"There are only the younger girls in the other part of the building," Camille said. "They hardly started to train with crossbows"

"It doesn't matter," Faith replied. "They are Slayers after all. Any Slayer can shoot with a crossbow as easily as she walks."

"The younger girls could use this door to escape," Camille suggested instead,gesturing to the girls behind her, obviously not convinced.

"No," Faith answered immediately in a tone brooking no argument. "We wouldn't be enough to face them. They're doing well," she added in a reassuring tone.

Then, she turned back to Hope.

"You ready, Hope?"

The young girl nodded, looking half-terrified, half-ecstatic.

"Go," Faith ordered. She pulled one more time on the door, and this time, the lock gave in, allowing the Slayer to open the door slightly to let the girl in. She immediately ran through the opening and Faith saw her disappear in the shadows of a narrow corridor.

"What now?" Camille asked.

"Seal that door," Faith answered, and she turned back to the double French windows without a last glance for Camille whom she heard yelling instructions to other girls to help block the door.

Faith came back to the dozen of Slayers who were still doing their best to keep the last access to the dining hall shut, while Natalie and her groups had just finished the remaining zombies off.

"Stay focused," Faith ordered when she saw the girls relaxing as the last monster was added to pile of frail corpses lying on the floor of the hall.

They all straightened up against the door again to keep it closed despite the renewed efforts of the zombies still pressed against it outside.

"What are we going to do?" asked a young Slayer who looked terrified, as she glanced at Vi, who was still lying on the floor. "Vi's hurt, or maybe dead and..."

"She's not dead!" another girl protested.

"We won't hold them back forever like this!" said a third one, and many conversations started at once in the room.

"Be quiet!" Faith ordered firmly, and silence came back immediately, almost magically. Faith paused when she noticed that every eyes in the room were turned to her, but she quickly pulled herself together, before it became embarrassing.

"We won't stay there and wait for them to finally open that door, or wait for the cavalry. The best defense is attack. We don't have to be afraid of some zombies. On my mark, we'll open these windows and let them in."

Silence welcomed this announcement at first, then a whisper spread amongst the Slayers and Camille finally voiced everyone's question:

"You think this is a good idea? We already had trouble with those who managed to come in..."

"That's the only thing we can do," Faith replied, sounding more confident than she thought she would. "They can only come in two at a time. We'll get our swords through them as they come in. Stand in line on each side of the door. And you," she gestured to several Slayers as she said this, gesturing to a zone where she wanted them to go, "go and stay there in half a circle behind, just in case..."

Faith took a few steps away then, going to Vi sill lying unconscious. She checked her pulse again, then moved carefully to a safer place under a table. Then she came back to the group and looked at each Slayer in the eye.

"Everyone has a weapon?"

They all nodded as one, and gripped said-weapon tightly.

"Everyone knows what to do?"

Another nod and the girls exchanged knowing glances.

"Perfect. On my mark, be ready to open."

Faith came to stand in front of the girls positioned in half a circle in front of the door, dagger at the ready in both hands.

"At the count of three, you're getting away from the door, okay?"

The group of girl still struggling against the door looked at her, apparently terrified, but they all nodded bravely.

"One," Faith yelled.

"Two," the girls moved imperceptibly.

"Three!"

They all released the door as one and the Slayers jumped on each side of the door where they came to stand beside their counterparts already ready to fight.

The double French windows gave in immediately and the zombies spread so quickly in the room that for a second, Faith wondered if her idea was as good as it looked only a moment ago.

"Now!" Faith yelled for the girls. She rushed forward and cut in half the zombie who had come in first.

Her yelling and her fast reaction gave the Slayer the impulsion they needed and all started to move at the same time, and soon, the room was only filled with fluid movements, noise of weapon against weapon and labored breathing.

After a few moments only, Faith could already see how efficient her plan was. The zombies came crashing against the Slayers standing around the door, just like fishes would in a net, and corpses kept falling and piled up in front of the door, so that it soon became difficult to move. Besides, Faith finally heard Hope yelling from upstairs that about a hundred zombies were gathered in the park, and when, out the window, she saw bolts flying from upstairs to take down the zombies still pressing against the door, she knew victory was not far.

Despite the more and more obvious outcome, the zombies did not give in anyway, insisting to enter at all costs, and Faith even saw some of them trying to climb the mansion's walls. She looked around her quickly and noticed that her counterparts had the situation in hands.

"Camille, finish them off here!" Faith yelled, turning to the oldest of the Slayers.

The girl was taking on two monsters at a time, but she nevertheless raised her thumb toward Faith to approve. The brunette then rushed to the door, bringing a few Slayers with her on her way. She made her way to the outside almost easily, and noticed that, as she had expected, the girls firing bolts from upstairs were efficient, piercing the zombies with their arrows without them being able to do anything to defend themselves against the shooters.

"With me!" she told the Slayers at her side.

They rushed to the zombies scattered near the entrance, and boosted as they were by their recent success, the group soon actively took part in the monsters' decimation. Little by little, shot after shot, their number was finally reducing, and the prospect of imminent victory allowed Faith to fight her tiredness while, around her, it was raining bolts over her enemies. She was incidentally taking mental note of the Slayers' ability when a bolt grazed her shoulder.

Faith looked up to the windows above her head, and in the midst of Slayers more focused about what they were doing than the next, she noticed Hope, a hand on her mouth, giving her an apologetic grimace. Faith sighed and came back to action.

A few minutes later, she saw Camille and some other girls running past her and concluded that the interior must have been cleaned up. She glanced around and saw only a small group of enemies remaining. Faith rushed toward them, pushed the young Slayers who were fighting them away, and took care of them herself. Four zombies later, applause and happy exclamations rang in the room, the bolts stopped to whistle in her ears, and Faith realized it was finally over. She stood up from upon the last monster she had just slain and looked around : dozens of grayish corpses lay strewn on the park's grass, and around fifteen girls were gathered around her, gazing at her like she was the Messiah himself, some of them ready to applause again, others carrying wounded or exhausted friends. Faith offered them a small, embarrassed nod, and after a last glance to the bodies on the ground, in order to be sure there were only zombies there, she gestured for the Slayers to follow her inside. As she passed under the second floor windows, she gave the younger Slayers leaning at the windows, the thumbs-ups and smiled.

Inside, the most able-bodied girls freed the barricaded doors, and minutes later, the rest of the school was in the room, from the other Slayers blocked in the other wing of the building to the nurses and cooks.

Someone had taken care of Vi's wound, and the redhead had regained consciousness, though she remained quite groggy and foreign to the mess around her. A few feet away from her, Natalie was dabbing some ointment on Camille's bruised face, while next to her, Hope was telling with a profusion of details how she had run upstairs to look for the cavalry and how she had pierced through dozens of zombies with her crossbow. Of course, she carefully avoided the part where she had nearly ran a bolt through Faith's shoulder, which the brunette found oddly amusing.

As nobody was paying her any attention anymore, everyone busy telling her own version of the night, she plopped down in a chair next to Vi who was slowly coming to.

"How do you feel, Red?" she asked with a mocking smile. "Feeling better after a nap?"

The redhead looked mortified at this, and Faith regretted immediately. She had hardly finished her sentence that she tried to make up for a remark.

"I mean, how do you feel? Really? You gave me a fright you know"

The brunette's tone had changed so quickly that Vi did not have time to flush with anger. She brought her hand to her head, where she had been hurt, and shrugged.

"I have a terrible headache," she said bitterly.

She tried to stand and almost fell over. Faith rushed forward to catch her and tried to force her to sit, but Vi pushed her away.

"No, no," she protested. "I need to call the roll and make sure everyone is there and safe."

"No one has been severely hurt," Faith assured her.

But Vi shook her head and freed herself from Faith's grasp.

"I need to be sure."

She took a few steps toward the center of the room and called out the girls.

"Camille, Natalie, Martha, Tori, report!" she exclaimed in a strong voice, and a complete and immediate silence fell on the room. The aforementioned Slayers took a step forward, staring at her. "Call the roll of your group, check that everyone is there and report any injury to me. Understood?"

They nodded together and left in different directions. Faith wanted to make Vi sit again, but she started a conversation with one of the cook who had come to ask about her condition, and with the school's doctor who was cleaning a gash on a young girl's arm while Vi was giving her a warn look. Faith gave up then, and plopped down back on her chair, feeling exhaustion finally getting the better of her.

She remained a long time just watching thoughtfully around her, the girls who were asking after each other or telling their adventures, those who came to ask Vi how she felt; she was still daydreaming on her chair like that when Vi came back to her ten or fifteen minutes later. The room was not empty but most Slayers had left for their room, even though Vi perfectly knew that it would be long before everyone sleep, if the girls slept at all. Only Hope, Camille and two or three other girls were still there, obviously waiting for the doctor to finish to check on one of them.

"We'll clean this mess tomorrow," Vi told Faith as she looked around her wearily. "I don't know what we'll make of all these corpses... I'll have to call Mr Giles to know if there's anything particular to consider..."

"At least, vampires don't fill your dining hall once dead," Faith remarked, and Vi nodded thoughtfully as she watched closely a corpse at her feet.

"Still..." she was thinking out loud. "I wonder where they came from... Another thing to solve tomorrow..."

"No need to wait for tomorrow," Faith replied, lifting slightly the corpse with her feet. "Look at their skin and feet."

Vi did as she was instructed, then looked up to Faith, not understanding.

"Look that mud everywhere on their skin." Faith explained after rolling her eyes in a knowing way. "The color, the texture... They didn't frequent lounges..."

"Thanks for that essential information." Vi replied dryly. Then she leaned over the corpse to watch more closely the deposit on the skin.

She frowned, and after a moment, she whispered, more for herself than for Faith:

"It's not simple mud, it's mud from a swamp..."

Her head turned round at lightning speed, and Vi jumped to her feet.

"Hope!" she yelled, sounded utterly furious.

The girl nearly fell over when she heard her name called like that, and looked at Vi, looking extremely uneasy.

"Do you know where all these monsters came from?" the redhead shouted, marching toward her with Faith – who had hastily stood – on her heels. "From a swamp!" Vi went on without leaving time to anyone to say anything. "And who just recently went to take a walk in a swamp and disturbed a monster who only wanted to be left alone?"

Hope's cheeks flushed and she looked down, as every pair of eyes in the room were now staring at her.

"Do you think we're trying to prevent you to have fun when we forbid you to throw yourself in a swamp infested with zombies?" Vi resumed, still furious. "Do you see where your great ideas lead? Someone could have been killed tonight! A cook, one of your friend, or yourself!"

"Vi..." Faith said lowly, but the redhead was so angry that she hesitated to interrupt her more frankly. "It's probably because I killed the demon..." she tried to explain in a soothing tone.

"You! Don't say a thing!" Vi screamed as she turned to the brunette so quickly that it was difficult to believe she had been severely injured an hour before. "It ended well and that's good, but it could have ended very badly! And here, we do everything in our powers for things to end well!" She turned back to Hope. "Most of us do anyway!"

She fell silent to catch her breath and glared at the girl while obviously trying to contain her anger. Finally, after what probably felt an eternity to Hope who was still looking down, Vi concluded in an icy tone:

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Everyone to bed now and be quiet."

Hope did not need to be told twice, and she turned on her heels as soon as Vi had finished to send them away. She almost ran to the door and disappeared in the corridor, the other girls following behind and whispering together as fast and low as possible.

* * *

An hour later, Faith was slumped into an armchair in Vi's office while the redhead had collapsed onto a small worn sofa near a fireplace where a fire was burning.

"Some scratches here and there but no serious injury." Vi announced. She had calmed down and looked exhausted now. "No one's missing. We're lucky that nobody was severely hurt."

She remained thoughtful for a moment, then turned to Faith.

"It's because of you, thank you."

Faith shrugged.

"I just did what I had to do."

"You did it well," Vi replied firmly.

"Your kids did well too," Faith insisted. "They have a good coach." She added in a nice and sincere tone.

Vi suppressed a smile and shrugged in her turn.

"That's my job."

"Then, you're doing it well." Faith answered, obviously determined to be nice.

Vi smiled at her counterpart's answer, similar to her own a moment sooner, and she settled cozily in her sofa.

"When I think to the work waiting for us tomorrow..." she mumbled. "I should leave Hope to clean the mess all by herself..."

"Don"t be too hard on her," Faith said carefully. "I think she's a good kid, she just needs to find where and how to fit."

Vi gave her a weird look and for a moment, Faith thought she was about to get angry again and reply she had no right to give her advice. But it did not happen and Vi only sighed.

"Well, probably..." she finally said.

Faith felt surprised to not have to spend more energy in Hope's defense, but she was relieved to not be forced to insist on the matter.

"Did you manage to call Giles to ask what to do with the bodies?" she changed the subject.

Vi shook her head.

"I left a message a moment ago. He's going to..."

The ringing of the phone interrupted her and she slightly jumped. She sat up to grab her phone in her jeans' back pocket and glanced at the screen where Giles' name was blinking.

"Speaking of the devil..." she commented, and she pressed the answering button.

Faith listened to her telling the events of the night and assuring Giles that everyone was fine, then praising the brunette's merits in the victory. Finally, she watched the redhead taking notes on a worn notebook as she listened religiously to the Watcher. Something like fifteen minutes later, Vi thanked Giles vehemently, promised again that the girls and herself were safe and sound, and eventually handed the phone to Faith.

"He wants to speak with you." she said.

Faith grabbed the phone and sticked it to her ear.

"Yeah G," she said casually.

"Hum, good evening Faith," Giles answered, obviously finding such familiarity disconcerting. "I really wanted to thank you myself for bringing Hope back like I asked you, and for saving the center and the girls from the attack."

"Take it easy," Faith protested. "I can't really say that I 'saved' the girls. I'm pretty positive that they would have done great without me."

"I'm sorry Faith, but I have my doubts," Giles replied. "I am quite certain that your presence, your experience and your skills were precious for this success. You should not minimize the significance of your actions, what you did was wonderful."

The brunette found herself at a loss for words to answer this simple and direct praise, and she just nodded awkwardly, looking embarrassed, though Giles could not see her. A silence followed, Giles apparently thinking about something and Faith looking for something to say.

"Hum, Faith..." Giles finally resumed after a moment of hesitation. "I know it might be a little early to ask you about what I am about to ask you, but I'd really like you to consider the matter before answering anything and..."

"Spit it out Giles," Faith interrupted, half amused, half worried, seeing how careful Giles was with her. "What is it?"

The Watcher choked with shock, and Faith figured that the way she had talked to him had thrown him a little off balance. The British man took a few seconds to pull himself together before resuming where Faith had interrupted him.

"Considering everything Violet told me, it seems that you were at your best in leading these young Slayers when they were running a great risk and..."

Faith had to refrain herself from interrupting him again. She did not, thinking that she would know quicker what Giles wanted to tell her if she listened quietly instead of interrupting him every ten seconds.

"... and I was wondering if you were ready to change your mind and take back a job at the Council."

He fell silent for a second, waited for her reaction, but finally resumed before she had time to say anything:

"Of course, you would have responsibilities with the new Slayers, you would be a squad leader indeed..." he paused again, then went on once more before Faith said anything: "To be frank, the situation in Cleveland is so dire that a Slayer with you talent to lead all these younger girls would be an invaluable advantage..."

New pause, and new resuming before the Slayer could answer.

"Of course, we will discuss about your wishes when you come. You would be employed by the Council and would have an apartment at your disposal."

This time, he fell silent for good and an uneasy silence followed. Faith was utterly surprised and tried to think about what Giles was suggesting. After all, she should not be surprised after everything Vi had told her about Cleveland. But she had never taken time to really think about that possibility and now, she felt at a loss.

Strangely though, she found some appeal to the suggestion, even if she could not get herself to answer positively and sacrifice the freedom she enjoyed so much.

"Giles, I..." she started hesitantly. "I don't really know. I..."

She tried to imagine what her life would look like there, then what her life would look like if she refused. Nothing clear appeared in her mind in any of these situations, but suddenly, something else became clearer than it ever had been.

"Faith, obviously, we..."

"Don't bother," the brunette interrupted again. "I can't give you any guarantee, but I will think about it. But before I can give you an answer or anything, I have something important to do. I'll think about it afterwards and I'll call you back."

Giles wanted to insist a little but he decided against it.

"Fine. If you have any question, feel free to call me. I will be happy to answer."

"No prob."

"We will talk later Faith. My regards to Tara."

"Hum, Giles," Faith resumed quickly to prevent him from hanging up, and she changed completely the tone of her voice: "Before you go, there's a page about me in the Slayer's handbook?"

* * *

Dawn was hardly rising the next morning as Faith was loading her belongings in her car, along with loads of groceries and new weapons offered by the school. Vi, Camille and Hope were all standing around the car and watched the brunette, handing a pack from time to time. When everything was loaded, Faith held her hand to Camille who took it frankly.

"Keep it up kid," the brunette told her. "You will be a great Slayer."

The girl nodded and smiled proudly in return.

"Thanks for everything and good luck. I hope we'll see each other again. In Cleveland maybe."

"Maybe." Faith concluded.

Then she turned to Hope, who was looking sternly at her feet, obviously sad that the brunette was leaving. When Faith held her hand to her, she did not took it, and the Slayer leaned to her to talk to her without the two other girls being able to hear.

"C'mon kid, I'm pretty sure Vi will forgive you this time. But I need you to promise to stop getting yourself into trouble, okay?"

"You're sure I can't come with you?" Hope asked, completely ignoring Faith's question. She looked up, and Faith saw that the question was sincere. "Your life's great." Hope went on in a low voice. "Alone, on the road… You can go wherever you want, whenever you want, without anyone…"

"My life's not great as you make it sound." Faith interrupted gently but firmly. "It may not be always easy around here for you, but you have a lot of great friends, people around you who care and are ready to help. It's important as you have probably noticed last night. All alone, or even alone with me, you wouldn't have make it through, would you?"

Hope nodded miserably and looked down again.

"Are you going to write?" she asked, in such a low voice that Faith barely heard her.

The unexpected question caught Faith off guard.

"Hum… I have to admit that I'm not very keen on writing y'know…" she started. "…but I might make an effort…" she finished when she saw the begging look on the girl's face. "But you have to promise to watch your step!"

"I promise!" Hope answered.

Faith then clumsily patted her shoulder by way of goodbye, and Hope grabbed Camille's wrist and both girls left to come back to the mansion.

"So?" Vi asked as they remained alone. "Do you have everything you need?"

"We can say that," Faith approved as she closed the trunk of the car. "Thanks for everything."

"You're the one who needs to be thanked for everything," Vi replied. "I don't know how things would have ended if you had not take matters in your hands."

"Probably very badly according to Giles!" Faith joked, and she was rewarded with a faint smile from the redhead.

"What are you going to do?" Vi asked. "Are you planning to come back to Cleveland?"

Faith looked thoughtful for a moment, then she answered in a somewhat enigmatic tone:

"Just as I told Giles, I have something important to do first. I'll think about it afterwards."

"Must be indeed very important for you to wake up this early," Vi remarked, and Faith was thankful that she did not ask questions.

"It is." She confirmed.

Vi only nodded and when Faith held her hand to her in her turn, she hugged her briefly instead.

"Take care of you," she told her.

"You too," Faith replied as she got into her car.

"And call Kenn one of these days," Vi concluded as Faith started the engine.

The brunette nodded her assent and started the car. Vi then turned around and walked down the alley leading her back to the mansion while Faith was driving away in the rising sun.

* * *

_End of 'Wars'_

_Next time, finale episode of the 'season' : 'Alive'_


End file.
